Black Sunrise
by Arjen
Summary: BtVS, Noir. Black Sunrise series, part 1. She had made all these wonderful plans for Halloween, but when it was time to collect the candy circumstances forced Dawn to go with her sister. At least she could still go while dressed as her favorite assassin.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Black Sunrise**

**Author: Arjen**

**Length: About 37.000 words**

**Summary: She had made all these wonderful plans for Halloween, but when it was time to collect the candy circumstances forced Dawn to go with her sister. At least she could still go while dressed as her favorite assassin.**

**Pairings: Nothing that isn't canon.**

**Rating: This story might not be suitable for young children.**

**Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Noir**

**Chronology:  
Black Sunrise  
Dark, Darker, ...**

**Disclaimer: All characters and other recognizable things are property of Mutant Enemy, ADV films, and whoever else wants to lay claim to them. Everything that I thought up is made using their property so I won't claim that either.**

**Feedback: Be critical, and my writing improves. Praise me, and I will feel good. A combination of these is my favorite.**

**My thanks go to Era and The Unicorn, for their help in ensuring that this story makes sense and is readable.**

**Background: Dawn was created early and the monks weren't stupid enough to lead Glory directly to her. Dawn doesn't have any knowledge of the supernatural at this time and is basically a typical annoying American twelve year old girl.**

**Author's note: This is the second version of this story. There is only one real difference. The Day After, which was originally a separate story, has been merged into this one as the epilogue. Yes, you were right, I was wrong. Enjoy your gloating. Aside from this, there are no major changes as the main goal of this rewrite was to improve readability. In other words, the story is the same but the words are different (and spelled correctly).**

x.x.x is a change in point of view.

**Chapter 1**

Walking down Revello Drive, Xander reflected on why he was in as good a mood as he was. There were two reasons for this. First of all, Giles had told them that there would be no vampires walking on the streets tonight. This in itself was a reason to be happy, but combined with the main reason for his happiness it was even better.

Tonight was Halloween. That night of nights. The time of sugary goodness. That night where he could act like a child without anyone saying anything about it. He couldn't really understand why vampires thought it was tacky, but he was the first to admit he didn't care either.

The only thing that put a slight damper on the evening was how Snyder, that troll who thought he fooled them by masquerading as a principal, had volunteered them into babysitting some kiddies. Xander didn't let that destroy his good mood however. He would be in the company of his best friends and he was sure they'd have fun.

It was those two friends who he was going to collect now at Buffy's house, and quickly checking his own costume he couldn't deny the fact that it was far better than what they would be wearing. Buffy would be dressed as a brainless twit in an attempt to impress her bloodsucking boyfriend, and Willow... well, despite Buffy's attempt to get his best bud in a rather revealing outfit, he was pretty sure she'd be going as her time-honored ghost.

Suddenly he was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard someone throwing what sounded a lot like a tantrum. After all, a normal conversation couldn't possibly be heard from a distance like this. Well, it could if the noise had come from one of the houses he was passing right now instead of the one that was his destination.

Wonderful, he sighed in resignation. This wasn't exactly how he'd wanted to start this evening, but there was a chance that it wasn't nearly as bad as it seemed at first glance. Well, at first. What did you call that? At first hearing? Nah, that just didn't have the same touch to it.

No matter. It probably wasn't as bad as it sounded like. A shouting match like this wasn't that uncommon with three headstrong women living in one house, but when they happened they were probably as friendly as a fight could get. If that made any sense.

It didn't really matter how friendly those fights were though. Xander had no intention of actually getting in the middle of one. The best course of action would therefore be to first gather some intelligence. Hah! He was really getting into his costume now!

Once he knew who the participants in the fight were, and what it was about, he could always decide what to do then. Interrupting a 'conversation' like this wasn't something he particularly enjoyed, but if it could help his friends he was willing to take some flak. Having seen Buffy angry often enough to know that he didn't want to be near her in those moments was therefore the main reason for Xander's caution.

Well, that and the fact that Dawn's tantrums weren't to sneeze at either. Not to mention the fact that once their mother had reached her breaking point it showed that Buffy and Dawn had come by their temper honestly. One of his greatest fears—not that he'd ever admit it—was therefore that the three of them might have a row and he'd be pulled in. Or even worse, that he would be forced to pick a side.

Shivering at the mere thought of a disaster like that, Xander stopped himself from actually walking up to the door and listened from where he was standing on the pavement.

"Why can't I just go alone?" Ah, that sounded like Dawn, and from the sound of the question it seemed like the other one was...

"I already told you why! It can be just as dangerous here as in Los Angeles." Yep, he nodded his head. He had been right. The other participant in this family drama was indeed Mrs. Summers herself. Which meant that Buffy wouldn't be in a bad mood because of this fight. The best possible scenario.

Unless she hadn't spoken up yet. That was after all still a possibility, and the main reason he looked down the street in both ways instead of going up to the door. Not seeing anyone who might think his behavior suspicious—as if anyone in Sunnydale would actually think something like that—he turned back to listen.

"But why? This is Sunnydale, the most boring town in America! Nothing ever happens here!" Hearing that Xander almost choked in surprise. Dawn might not know anything about the Hellmouth, vampires, and the likes, but a statement like that was an invitation for disaster. Especially here in Sunnydale where every tiny action had consequences that had the nasty habit of biting you in the ass—or in the neck.

"I don't care if nothing ever happens, I don't want you to go alone and that's final. Now you will do as I say, or you won't go at all!"

"Oh come on mom." Ah, Dawn had advanced to playing the sympathy card. While he couldn't hear exactly what she said, it was obviously the last option the girl had left. Which meant that it might actually be safe to approach the house now.

Xander decided to wait another couple of minutes though. He was early anyway, and with the night this warm he didn't mind standing outside a bit longer. A decision that proved to be the right one as a sudden shout of frustration came from inside the house. Dawn had lost the argument.

It was probably safe to enter now, but he also realized that it would embarrass Dawn if she found out that he'd heard how she'd lost an argument. So, in order to remain on good terms with all of the Summers women, it might be a good idea to pretend he hadn't heard it.

Yes, that was a very good thing. Having made his decision Xander turned around and slipped away from the Summers residence. He didn't want to go too far though, and after about a minute he turned back around. Putting his goofy smile back on, he then once again approached the house that contained four of the people who were most important to him.

x.x.x

Still pouting, Dawn didn't react to the doorbell. Instead letting her mother open it. After all, she already knew who it was likely to be, and her mother's greeting only confirmed it. "Hello Xander."

"Hi, Mrs. Summers. I came to pick up Willow and Buffy. Are they ready yet?"

So the nicest of Buffy's friends had arrived. At least he had missed the argument. Not that she doubted for a moment that Buffy would tell him about it anyway. After all, that was the kind of thing her sister always did. Which was simply unfair. After all she didn't share every mistake Buffy made with her friends either, did she?

Honesty intervened here, and Dawn had to admit that maybe, just maybe, she might've shared one or two things with Jane and Sara. But that was different, and didn't make her anymore happy about the fact that Xander would hear about her defeat in this latest battle of wills.

Xander had always been nice to her and she liked his jokes. She didn't want him to think of her as some kind of spoiled brat, but this situation just wasn't fair. How could her mother force her into this position? Just because her friends couldn't come didn't mean that- Before she had more time to think about the unfairness of her present situation she realized that Xander and her mother had entered the living room.

"Hey Dawn-patrol."

"Hi Xander." She looked him over, mentally commenting on his costume. It didn't look like it was anything special, and that made her wonder why he hadn't had his parents pay for a better one. The soldier outfit looked like it came from a surplus store, and was obviously not entirely the right size for him. And despite the fact that it looked real enough, the toy gun obviously wasn't of the highest quality either. Thinking it over for a moment she decided that it might just work anyway. Alright, her opinion might be a little biased because she liked him, but that didn't really matter.

"What? Do I have something on my costume? Is it ripped somewhere?" Xander asked in a panicked voice while looking at the front of his costume in an attempt to find what she'd been staring at. Dawn felt her cheeks burn, and immediately felt mortified. Why was she blushing? She shouldn't be doing that! Especially not in front of Xander! She really hoped he wouldn't notice with all the make-up on her face.

"Sorry, I was just looking at your costume." That had not been meant to come out like that! She could do better then squeak an answer! It wasn't as if she had a crush on him or anything.

At least she certainly hoped not. Who knew what Buffy would do if she found out? Buffy had sworn revenge after she'd overdone the teasing a little back in LA. Well, she hadn't really overdone it. It was simply that, like usual, Buffy had overreacted to the harmless little thing she had done.

And it wasn't as if she'd done something really bad anyway. All she'd done was put up a sign, displaying a declaration of love from Buffy, at the school where the boy couldn't miss it. Dawn still couldn't understand why her sister had been so angry about it. The other kids at the school had forgotten about the incident within weeks.

"And what do you think? Does it look good?" Xander asked once he'd made certain there really wasn't anything wrong with his costume.

As the boy tried some poses that were probably meant to display his manliness she had to stifle the giggles that threatened to escape at the ridiculous sight. He really wasn't meant to do things like that, but it did manage to cheer her up. Instead of a verbal answer that might once again come out completely wrong she settled for vigorously nodding her head in confirmation.

When her mom spoke up it was obvious to Dawn that she wasn't the only one who had trouble staying serious during the show. "Why don't you take a seat Xander while I'll have a look at what's keeping the girls."

"Sure Mrs. Summers. I'll keep Dawn company for a while, I'm sure she'll be able to tell me some embarrassing stories about Buffy that I can use to blackmail her."

Mentally preparing a list of embarrassing stories about her sister that she could tell him Dawn almost missed her mother's next comment. "If you're thirsty I'm sure Dawn will get something for you."

Turning to her mother in order to protest, Dawn caught the warning glare in the woman's eyes and decided that it was probably best to do as her mother ordered. A small peace offering might be a good idea. Besides, she'd gotten thirsty herself from all that shouting earlier and this way she could get something for herself as well. "Sure, what do you want Xander?"

x.x.x

Sitting down while Dawn got him his coke, Xander wondered at the way the two Summers women could act as if there hadn't been a fight. If he hadn't heard the two of them earlier Xander doubted that he would have noticed Dawn initial reaction to being volunteered as serving girl. He had no idea why she had submitted to her mother's will in the end, but then he had never claimed to be an expert when it came to the female mind.

When Dawn returned with his drink she seated herself on the couch across from him with her own glass. Sipping on the sweet drink he took the opportunity to do his own examination of her costume. It was definitely out of the ordinary, and no matter how hard he tried Xander couldn't think of what she might be dressed as. Except for the fact that she was supposed to look Japanese that is.

While most of her arms were bare, her forearms were covered with some weird sleeve-like things. Those sleeves were attached to her middle finger and had some kind of bracelet type thing on the other end. Something similar was the case for her legs which were, or rather weren't, covered by a short skirt—well two small pieces of cloth that covered respectively the front and back—while the lower part had received a similar treatment to her arms. How had she convinced Mrs. Summers to allow her to wear that?

Oh, of course. How silly that he hadn't noticed before. She wore some kind of tights or stockings under it. Tights were the thick ones, weren't they? Whatever, it made a lot more sense like this, and was probably how she'd convince her mother to allow her to go out in such a revealing outfit. Because it didn't end with her legs, although the rest wasn't quite as revealing.

Her torso was covered by two crisscrossing pieces of the same golden cloth that was used for the rest of the outfit, while around her neck and middle she wore some kind of silver rectangle thing beset with a large blue stone. Perhaps feeling uncomfortable under his scrutiny she suddenly placed her feet on the couch so she could rest her chin on her knees, and he got a look at the shoes she wore. Well, shoes wasn't the right term.

"Dawnie?"

"Yes?"

"Are those sandals? Do you still have to pull on the shoes that go with the outfit? Because I'm not sure if that combination works well."

Dawn moved so quickly that he could hardly believe it. If he hadn't known Buffy was the Slayer he might have suspected that it was the younger Summers girl instead. Slayer or not, she managed to make him lose sight of the unexpected footwear within the blink of an eye, and when he looked up at her face in amazement he noticed a faint blush underneath the make-up.

"It's part of the costume," came out a little muffled from what now looked like an embarrassed little girl.

If it was part of the costume he didn't really know why she was so embarrassed over it, but he hoped he could make it up a little with his next words. "Well, I think you look really cute in your costume."

This however didn't appear to have the desired effect as she blushed even harder before covering her face with her hands. An action that he thought looked really cute as well, and made him wonder how it would be if he had a little sister like that. Knowing his parents however he doubted she would have been able to act as carefree as the girl in front of him.

It was only moments later that his attention was once more directed at Mrs. Summers as she came down the stairs. "It won't be long now Xander. They're almost finished."

"Thank you," Xander politely answered before ruthlessly suppressing a sigh. They were girls after all, and they always seemed to take forever to get ready. Why was that anyway? It was probably something genetic. He wasn't quite sure if that sort of thing was possible, but ever since he had heard the term it had become his way of explaining all the weird behavior women and girls could exhibit.

"Dawn? Are you alright?" The slightly worried tone of the older Summers tore his attention back to Dawn in time to see her give a slight nod from Dawn. As Mrs. Summers then turned to him for an explanation Xander could only tell her what he'd said to the girl. Not that he believed it would in any way be useful, but the knowing smile that appeared on Mrs. Summers's face told him that she understood what was going on. Which was good as he was sure that she'd be able to handle the situation. Whatever the problem actually was.

"It has finally happened, hasn't it?" she asked her daughter while sitting down next to her.

A nod was the only response she got, not that Xander thought that was a very useful thing. Shortly after that though, Dawn turned to look at her mother with pleading eyes and asked a strange question. "Please don't tell Buffy."

Don't tell Buffy what? The situation was becoming weirder every minute, and he had a feeling that it had something to do with him. Not that he knew why or how, and that was something he actually wanted to have cleared up. "Are you okay, Dawnie?"

"She's fine Xander, it's a girl thing." While the answer didn't come from the girl he'd asked, Xander knew there was no point in prying for more information. Not that he wanted more information. Oh no. This was a girl thing. Girl things were to be avoided at all cost. He'd learned that from experience, and had no intention of risking either his physical or mental health. During one of those girl things between Willow and Buffy he'd discovered that there was something worse than having your question ignored.

If he hadn't been as strong as he was, Xander was fairly certain that he'd have had nightmares ever since. There were some things he really didn't want to know, and Buffy's opinion about Angel was at the very top of that list. Ugh, he shivered at that memory. It was best to let sleeping dogs lie, and that counted for this situation as well. "Okay. That's good. Yes, that's very good. No need for more information. Please."

Mrs. Summers gave him a knowing smile, and turned her attention back to Dawn. The two of them talked quietly for a while until the older woman spoke up a bit louder again. "Your make-up is a little messed up. Do you want me to fix it, or would you rather stay home after all?"

The horrified expression he could feel forming on his own face was mirrored on Dawn's face. "Stay home? This is the night of free candy! Why would she want to stay home when she can go out to rob little old ladies of their sweets?"

When the two of them both turned to him with a surprised look he had a feeling they had forgotten about him, and for a moment he wondered whether he had stepped out of line by listening to their 'girl-talk'. That moment passed quickly however as Mrs. Summers turned to her daughter and looked at her with a smile that seemed to convey a lot more than Xander could make out as it caused Dawn to once again blush.

The situation was now officially starting to freak him out, and he wondered how long it would take for his friends to get ready so he could get back into the sane world. It wasn't that Buffy and Willow never acted strange with their girl things, but he was at least used to their behavior. The sight before him was completely different, and he had no idea how to deal with it.

He no longer had to figure out how to deal with it however as Dawn answered her mother. "Could you please fix it? I do want to go, and I'm really sorry about earlier."

This time he at least knew what it was they were talking about, even if he wasn't meant to, and he was happy the two of them had made up. Although he now realized that with Dawn's sudden strange behavior she hadn't gotten around to telling him any embarrassing stories about his favorite Slayer.

x.x.x

Sitting quietly on the chair while her mother fixed her make-up, Dawn was acutely aware of her earlier embarrassment. With the way she acted she was surprised Xander hadn't noticed anything, but unless he had put up an Oscar worthy achievement he really didn't have a clue. Thank God for small favors, but how could she act like that?

She was twelve years old, and in her own opinion pretty smart. The whole blushing thing about some stupid boy was really childish and shouldn't be happening. Sure, it wasn't her first crush—although she thought she'd hidden the others fairly well—but this kind of behavior was really extreme. It was the kind of behavior one expected from silly little girls, like Buffy, and not by Dawn Summers.

She needed to get over this silly crush as soon as she could. Well the easiest way to do that was by simply vowing to herself that she wouldn't be crushing on her sister's friend anymore. So she did.

That should do the trick, happy that that nonsense was sorted out she shifted a little in an attempt to find a more comfortable position. "Sit still Dawn, I can't work like this," her mother sighed, but Dawn didn't pay any attention to the words.

Instead she was fascinated by the way Xander was sipping from his glass of coke, and for a moment she wondered what it would be like if he pressed those lips to hers. She imagined how it would be if she got up now, walked over to him, threw her arms around him and kissed him. He would hesitate at first—probably scared of Buffy's reaction—but it wouldn't be long before he'd give in to her insistence and part his lips to allow her tongue entrance to his mouth.

Sighing in wonderment it took her a while before she realized Xander was looking at her in surprise. Oh no! She'd been staring at him, and now he might suspect something. Quickly she turned her attention back to her mother before she might do something even worse. It was already too late though. The heat in her cheeks clearly told her that once again she was blushing like a silly little girl.

Her mother's annoyingly knowing smile didn't help matters much either, and for a moment she debated cursing her mother for that. This was not a funny situation, and she really shouldn't act like it was. This was possibly the worst thing that could have happened to her. If she had to act like this because of a boy, did it really have to be one of her sister's best friends?

Yes, she decided. Life was unfair. Maybe she should stay inside tonight anyway? On the one hand it would be so wonderful to be near him for that time, but on the other hand it would be so frustrating when, with her sister around, she couldn't even show him how she felt. In order to clear her head from these disturbing thoughts she closed her eyes and focused on the strange smell of the make-up.

With her eyes closed her mind quickly drifted back to the scene she'd imagined earlier. As the wooden chair disappeared from underneath her, and was replaced by a pair of uniform clad legs, Dawn leaned forward. Resting her forehead against his she peered into those deep brown eyes that were completely filled with love and adoration for her.

Raising her head a little she gave him a short kiss on his forehead before leaning back and allowing her hands to explore his face. Letting her fingers play over his cheeks, over his closed eyes, his nose, and even his ears, she explored like a blind person would. Both of them sighed in pleasure at her touch, and leaning in closer she took in his unique Xander-scent. This was incredible. Once again she brought her face in line with his, and moved to kiss him.

"Ah, finally," Xander sighed, clearly wanting the same thing as her. No. Wait a minute. The words were right, but the tone was completely off. Opening her eyes, she blinked to allow them to adjust to the sudden light. Xander was standing and looking at the stairs where her sister was now walking down. No! Not fair! He was hers, and hers alone!

Why was he praising her sister like that? Buffy was only wearing some kind of silly noblewoman costume! He should be paying attention to her! She was dressed really, really, cool. And even if she hadn't been, he should still have been paying attention to her alone. He belonged to her, and Buffy wasn't even interested in him. Wasn't she dating someone else anyway? Then why was she encouraging Xander's flirting? He wasn't supposed to be doing that!

She needed a way to bring his attention back to where it belonged, but how? Yes! If she told him those embarrassing stories about Buffy he would understand how ridiculous her older sister could be and forget all about her. No, not forget since that might mean he wouldn't come here again, and that wasn't what she wanted either. He could forget about Buffy once he was firmly hers, but not before.

Making him stop thinking of Buffy as someone he could fall in love with was the goal though, and the stories would help in that regard. Because Xander belonged to her and only her! No! Those feelings were wrong, she shouldn't be so possessive of him, she had watched enough television to understand that might just drive him away. But thinking of him dating, maybe even kissing, someone other then her made her feel cold all over. Only the thoughts of his earlier words, how he had said she was cute, warmed her a little.

"Done." Her mother's words shook Dawn out of her reverie and she looked at the mirror that was held up in front of her. It looked perfect. Unfortunately the only people who were likely to recognize just who she was supposed to be weren't able to come tonight. There was something missing though... Of course! Quickly thanking her mother she hurried off to get the remaining items that came with the costume.

"Hey! Watch it Dawn." Oops, so she 'accidentally' brushed a little too close to her sister messing up her stupid dress. It was a ridiculous costume anyway, and she still didn't understand why Buffy would want to dress like that. It would help her in her case with Xander though. Nobody could possibly believe that anyone who dressed like Buffy had could be better than someone wearing a cool costume.

Not paying any attention to her sister, she ran upstairs where she almost crashed into the walking sheet that was coming down the stairs

"Dawn!" A ghost? From what Buffy had been telling during dinner she thought that Willow had been meant to go as some kind of hooker or something. Oh well, even if Willow had been a serious threat to her plans of seducing Xander, this could only help Dawn. Not bothering to figure out the reason for the sudden costume change she apologized with a shout of "Sorry!" and continued on to her room.

Once there she grabbed the three items that would complete her outfit. The things that defined exactly who her character was. Holding them in her hands she wondered where she could put them. The Anime had never been clear on how they carried their weapons during those final two episodes, but that was probably because the artists didn't have to pay attention to that kind of details. It did leave her with a problem though as the outfit wasn't exactly created for carrying things around.

Eventually she found a solution and slid the student card into one of her sleevethingies—what were they called anyway?—and she managed to hide the other two items somewhere on her back. Some kind of spinal sheath would have probably been best for that, or at least something in which she could easily carry the weapons. It might be a ceremonial outfit, but that didn't mean there wasn't supposed to be something she could put the weapons in. Of course, they did fit where she'd put them now, but she didn't like that nobody could see them there. Unfortunately the only other possibility was to carry everything, and that didn't sound like fun either.

Looking in the full-size mirror adorning her closet she admired the way she looked so much like the girl she wanted to imitate. And Xander had thought she looked cute as well! Sighing at that thought, Dawn wondered once again about the unfairness of it all. Had her original plan gone through she wouldn't even have been home when he had arrived, and she could have lived in blissful ignorance about what she still thought of as a ridiculous crush.

She was far too young to be able to unravel the mysteries of the heart though, so she might as well surrender to it. Wow, she blinked in surprise, that actually sounded profound. It was time to go now though. Smoothing her costume again, Dawn gathered her courage and left her room.

"Dawnie is coming too?" she heard Xander ask.

"Yeah, mom won't let her go out alone and now we're stuck with her."

"Ah come on, it won't be that bad." Thank you! Her heart soared as her chosen future husband defended her.

"I don't like it but mom didn't give us any choice. Oh well, what's one more annoying little brat among many?" Aargh! Why couldn't her sister act like she at least liked her? One day she'd get her back for all these comments.

Suddenly a smile appeared on her face as she remembered that telling those stories to Xander would serve as a way of getting back to her sister as well. The walk to Sunnydale Highschool was a pretty long one and she was certain that during that time she could tell him quite a number of stories.

With the smile still on her face she went down the stairs where she was greeted by her sister's sour-looking face, Xander who looked anxious to get underway and, Willow who despite Buffy's best attempts still looked like a walking sheet.

"Finally, we've been done for hours now. Can we go, or is there anything else you need to do?" Her sister's greeting wasn't the nicest Dawn had ever received, but considering the company she decided it was best if she acted like the mature one.

"Nope, I'm done," she smiled. Having her sarcastic barbs ignored always managed to rile Buffy up a little. "Why don't we go and rob some little old ladies of their sweets?"

She couldn't see it as she had passed them on the way to the door, but she was pretty certain the older girls were both glaring at Xander. The sound of a slap seemed to confirm it, and for a moment she debated doing something about it. No. Xander could handle himself, and there were times that getting under her sister's skin was more important anyway.

"Ow! What did I do?" See? He could handle himself.

"I know she got that from you, and you really shouldn't tell her things like that. She'll always use it to annoy me." Yep, and there was nothing that Buffy could do to stop her from using everything she had.

x.x.x

They had collected the group of small fry and now the four of them were escorting the little monsters around. Strange how almost every one of them appeared to be dressed as their inner selves. Despite their appearance however, the kids were behaving themselves so far, and they seemed to have taken his speech to heart. Seeing them using the tricks he'd discovered over the years made Xander proud of the children. It was always a special moment when your knowledge was used for a good cause.

The only one in the group who didn't seem to act like he'd expected her to was little Dawnie, and he wondered why that was. During their walk to the school Dawn had entertained the three of them with as many embarrassing stories about Buffy as she could. Which seemed to indicate that she'd been alright at that time. And boy, he had enjoyed those stories. He couldn't wait until he'd get an opportunity to rub some of Buffy's mistakes in her face.

While the initial stories had been fun, it had gotten even better later on as Buffy had retaliated. As a consequence, Both Willow and he had been treated to a show where the Summers girls tried to out-embarrass each other. Xander never knew that so many stories could be told in such a short time, but as with everything all good things eventually come to an end.

Dawn had just been going on about a rather interesting story concerning a boy Buffy had a crush on, which seemed to be a recurring theme in Dawn's stories, when Buffy had interrupted. Now, his friend had interrupted before, but this time it was different. From the way she'd blanched Xander figured that she'd recognized the story for what it was, and had decided that it would be best if he and Willow didn't hear this one.

Buffy had cheated there however, and made Dawn a promise that was better than anything he could offer in return. If Dawn saw someone she knew she could go along with them; as long as she promised in return that the two of them would meet up again before going home.

As it was the best opportunity for Dawn to get out from under her sister's supervision, she'd jumped at the opportunity. He had almost felt like begging her to continue the story anyway—it had to be really good if Buffy's reaction was any indication—but his manliness had stopped him from doing that. Well, that and the fact that it wouldn't help anyway.

Dawn had known his opinion about it though, and had shyly winked at him when Buffy couldn't see it. Then when she'd made the promise the girl had inserted a single word that would ensure that he'd undoubtedly get to hear the story at a later date. She wouldn't tell the story NOW.

After that promise the girl should have been happily looking around for friends so that she wouldn't have to put up with her sister anymore. That wasn't the case however as Dawn was barely paying any attention to the other children on the streets. This needed an explanation and who better to find out what was wrong then the Xandman? "What's wrong Dawnie?" Xander asked as he started walking next to her.

"Nothing." Okay... he doubted he would have believed that had he been both blind and deaf, and the way she looked and sounded made it even more obvious to him. Dawn needed to get something off her chest, and it wasn't her costume. Wasn't she cold in that anyway? Her legs might be encased, but her arms were still pretty bare.

"R-i-i-ight," he drawled, "and what makes you think I'd accept an excuse like that?"

Not receiving a reply, Xander tried it another way. "Now, why won't the beautiful lady tell this brave knight what her problem is? He can then go and slay that particular dragon for her so that she can once again be at peace." Humor had always been the best way for him to get things done, even if people didn't always agree with that sentiment.

The result he got wasn't exactly what he had expected. Instead of laughing and explaining the situation, Dawn was blushing. He still didn't know how to deal with that though, so he therefore chose what lesser minds might call the coward's way. He ignored her blushing and waited for her to react in a way he could deal with. Eventually she did: answering his question with one of her own. "Since when are there knights in the United States army?"

"You wound me, milady." Putting his hand over his heart he pretended that this was indeed the case, and this time he was rewarded by giggling. Success! "But you still haven't told me what the problem is."

"It's nothing really."

"Oh come on, this is me. You know you can't hide anything from the Xandman."

This time he wasn't certain if he liked the burst of laughter, but decided to take it in the most positive way he could. Once he figured out what that would be. "I'm sorry Xander, I didn't mean to laugh at you, but that sounded really silly."

Ouch, that didn't make him feel a lot better about the laughter, but he was on a mission here and wouldn't let a little ridicule stop him. "That's alright. I'm used to being treated like that." Pinking away a fake tear he played upon her sympathies in order to get her to open up.

"Oh, I'm really sorry Xander." Throwing her arms around him the girl looked up at him with watery eyes. "I won't ever do that again, please forgive me."

Once again mystified by the ways of the female mind Xander was at a loss for words. "I, ah. I don't... I mean I do... I mean... I forgive you. Now, why don't you tell me what's wrong so I can help you with it."

"Hey Xander!" Looking over at Buffy who was staring at him and Dawn he wondered what she wanted. "Will you please stop groping my little sister? I would like to be able to enjoy the candy, and having to look at that just makes me feel sick."

Dawn let go of him and turned towards her sister. "I was just asking him for something! There's no reason for you to be angry at him. I was the one who... oh no."

The last part of Dawn's speech came as a groan, and its timing coincided with the glint of sudden realization that he recognized in Buffy's eyes. Dawn probably understood what that was about, and he had a feeling that he should as well.

Xander had no doubt that he find out soon though as Buffy seemed more than willing to share her newfound knowledge. In fact, if her grin was any indication, Buffy seemed to be enjoying this situation very much. Well, it appeared that the earlier truce was about to be broken, and as Buffy opened her mouth he was anxiously awaiting her words.

Before his friend had a chance to speak however, the whole world seemed to turn inside out.

….…

What happened? Grabbing his weapon, the soldier took stock of the situation. He was standing in the middle of what appeared to be an American street, but that was where normality ended. He was surrounded by a group of little monsters who seemed to be running around aimlessly. Three other humans were around him as well, although they didn't look very normal either.

The one he noticed first was a blond girl dressed in expensive clothes that even he knew had gone out of style at least a century before. The reason that she was the first one he noticed had nothing to do with her looks—although they were nothing to sneer at—but with the way she was screaming like a banshee. Screaming for a knight to save her. Where did she think she was? In some kind of fairy-tale?

A redheaded working girl was looking around in confusion, and he figured that despite that confusion she was the most likely one to have any answers for him. After all, the other human was a young Japanese girl who was wearing some kind of weird ceremonial garb. At least he hoped it was ceremonial. Although... wouldn't it be ceremonial if she was a deranged cult-member as well? Whichever it was, she obviously wasn't the person to ask for information.

The working girl was staring at the children, and as he had no intention of shouting to get her attention he walked over to her. Standing behind her, she still hadn't noticed him, and with a frown on his face he made to grab her.

He blinked and tried again.

He blinked again. "Okay, this is weird."

The working girl heard him talk and turned around only to immediately start talking. "Xander! Do you know what's going on?"

Great, his only potential source of information was so confused that she was as useless as the other two. "Who's Xander?"

"What? You are of course. Alexander Lavelle Harris, who prefers to be called Xander." Ahh, so that was his name. The girl wasn't as confused as he had believed after all, now he just needed to find out what had caused this sudden bout of memory loss. And to have an explanation of why his hand had gone straight through her body when he tried to grab her.

"Thank you for telling me ma'am, I'm having some problems with my memory. I take it that I know you?"

"Of course you know me!"

"I'm one of your clients?"

"What?" Now it was the redhead's turn to gasp, and he wondered why she seemed so upset at his words.

"You are a working girl, aren't you? And since you seem to be familiar with me I assumed... My apologies if I have offended you."

"I... I... I..." She didn't appear to come out of her words, but eventually she managed. "I am not some kind of two-bit whore, Xander Harris!" She tried to slap him, but her hand went straight through the arm he had thrown up to protect his face before continuing its journey through his head. He shivered at this repeated proof that the girl was intangible.

"What the hell is that!" Xander yelled as he could no longer stand not knowing how someone could possibly be intangible.

"I don't know!" the girl screamed back at him.

He stopped himself from screaming again. Now was not the time. Strange things were going on, and he really needed more information so he could decide on what to do. At the moment he was debating whether to look for the nearest army-base or a mental institution. Somehow he had a feeling that he wouldn't have any trouble if he wanted to be dismissed by being given a section eight.

Focus! Okay, the girl was not a working girl. He'd figured that part out already. It made some sense as well as she obviously was a bit young for that job, not that that stopped some people, and with her, ah, handicap it would have been difficult to make money that way anyway.

"Look lady," Xander, if that was his name, said as he once again bravely suppressed the shivers that threatened to run down his back, "I really am sorry about thinking that you're a working girl. I would be really grateful though if you wouldn't put anymore of your body parts inside me. There is obviously a lot going on here, and that might just put me over the edge again. Now, as you seem to know me I'd like to put the two of us on a more even footing by asking you for your name."

Shooting daggers with her eyes the girl nonetheless answered his implied question. "I'm Willow."

"Okay then, Willow, you seem to be the only one around here who has even the slightest idea of what's happening. Therefore, I would kindly ask you if you could you perhaps stop trying to glare me to death, and explain what the hell is going on around here?" The last part he shouted in her face, using a time honored technique of how to get more information.

For a moment it seemed to work as the girl took a step back, but that didn't last and she soon proved once again that she could yell as well. "Xander Harris! You are not in any position to yell at me. Not after what you just called me!"

Rolling his eyes he repeated his request for information, and this time she seemed more impressed as she actually got around to answering the damn question.

"You didn't have to yell at me," the redhead pouted, before asserting herself once more. "And I don't know what's going on anyway. Oh, but maybe Buffy does!"

"Buffy?" He stopped himself in the nick of time from asking if that was one of her colleagues. She was pissed enough at him as it was, and he didn't need to make it worse only because Buffy was the sort of name he'd expect for an exotic dancer.

When the redhead, Willow he reminded himself, turned to the fairytale princess he realized he had made the right decision. With his luck the useless piece of decoration was probably a member of some kind of powerful family, and would have busted him down to permanent KP had she heard him say something like that. With his luck? That had come out so very natural. Did that mean that kind of thing happened to him often?

"That's Buffy? The one you think can give us answers? She looks even more useless than you do." Okay, so he didn't feel like holding back every comment. If they didn't like it they shouldn't give him openings like that, and besides the girl was starting to annoy him.

"I don't understand." The girl seemed lost now that she had realized that the decoration piece was indeed that. Taking the opportunity he checked the blonde out and had to change his opinion slightly: while she was still obviously only good for acting as decoration she was a very nice one.

"Willow? What's going on?" Those soft-spoken words came from the Japanese girl who apparently was familiar with the redhead as well.

"Oh Dawn, I almost forgot about you. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, what's going on?" The question was rather intent, and he had a feeling there was something a little off about the girl. As the redhead didn't seem to notice he figured it was probably normal for the young girl and he gave it no more thought.

"I think everyone has changed into their costume. Well, everyone but you."

"Changed into their costume? What are you talking about woman?" He had no time for that kind of nonsense. It almost sounded as if the stupid girl believed in something as ridiculous as magic. Of course, when Xander then realized that people that you couldn't touch weren't real either he swallowed nervously, and grabbed his M-16 a little tighter. He really didn't understand what was going on, and he really wanted his memory back before something even worse happened.

"It's Halloween and we were all dressed up, I was dressed like a ghost and now I am one."

Snorting he couldn't help but comment on that. "I never imagined that is what ghosts dress like. Had I known that I might have been more interested in Casper." At their strange looks he quickly added to that statement. "For the female guests of course, geez, what kind of sicko do you think I am that I'd be interested in a little boy?"

"I wore this underneath the sheet!"

"Why? To flash innocent children?" This was fun. If it hadn't been for the strange situation he might have spent the next hours baiting her.

"NO!" Oh goody, now she was turning an interesting shade of red as well. He couldn't even remember seeing that particular shade on a human before. Okay, with his memory gone that didn't say much, but it still looked far from healthy. Nonetheless, he once more focused on the rest of the explanation.

"Okay," the girl said once she'd calmed down again. "Your name is Xander Harris..."

It was a rather strange tale and he had some trouble believing he was supposed to be some kind of schoolchild; especially one that sounded as much of a geek as she described. But it might explain the decoration piece, who by now had thankfully turned quiet, and the little critters who had scattered.

"So, if I understand what you're saying, this is all some kind of weird magical thing that has caused pint-sized demons and Dracula wannabe's to run around?"

"Well, yes?" The girl sounded as if she was hoping he would believe her, but would understand if he didn't. Problem was, he had no idea whether to believe her or not.

"But apparently, there are others as well? Little kiddies that are dressed up like their favorite heroes who undoubtedly will try to save everyone?"

"Yes?" He was happy to hear she sounded even more uncertain then before.

"And you're absolutely sure that you aren't just some kind of delusional kid who died after reading too many fantasy books, and has decided to spend her afterlife annoying me?"

"No! I mean yes." She appeared to have some difficulty finding the right answer to this question, as he had intended. "I'm not delusional, anyway how would you explain my being a ghost then?"

Xander shrugged. "Just because I've never seen a ghost before doesn't mean they don't exist even if I hadn't expected them to look like a working girl."

Yep, there was the interesting shade again. "XANDER!"

"Alright, say I believe you. What can we do about it?" Not that he did believe her, or at least not the part about him being some kind of schoolkid. Who did she think she was fooling?

"I don't know." Wonderful, the playmate of the year didn't know how to handle her own delusions.

"Magic?" This came once again from the soft-spoken girl, and he wondered if she was even capable of saying anything louder then a whisper.

"Ehm, yes Dawn. I know we didn't tell you but it's dangerous, a-and Buffy thought it better if you didn't know?" He couldn't predict how the girl would react to that, but had someone told him that he hadn't been informed of the threats in the world because they were dangerous he would be pissed. After all, how could you protect yourself against something if you didn't know it was there?

Wait a minute, he just realized something. "You mean to tell me that the only person here who could possibly corroborate your story doesn't know anything about all this?"

"Yes?" Once again he could hear the question mark in her answer and he was getting really tired of this. Action was needed, that he could understand. Thinking about the bigger issues was for the officers, not for a simple grunt like him.

"Is there someone else you know who might not be infected with whatever magical ray has been used, and who might possibly understand what is going on?" Maybe if he treated her like a little kid she would understand him.

"Giles! Giles will know."

Finally, something useful if this Giles wasn't just another figment of her imagination of course. "And where can we find this Giles?"

"I don't know." Sweet merciful god, why did he have to deal with a delusional ghost? "Oh wait, he'll be at the library."

Okay, at the library. For a moment he looked up and indeed there was no sun to warm his body, only a beautiful starry sky with a nearly full moon. "This Giles is at the library at this time of night?"

"Yes, he's the librarian at school, and he said he'd be there tonight."

At school. Could this whole situation become even more ridiculous? He needed to ditch this girl, not even the fun of baiting her could stand up against this nonsense.

"Okay then," he put a smile on his face that he sincerely hoped looked real, "why don't you go get him, while I'll take these other two to a safe place."

"Good idea, if there are any vampires around they need to be protected."

"I don't think you have to worry about that. Even without killing them I'm sure I can handle a couple of pint-sized vampires."

"I meant real vampires."

"Real vampires!"

"Ehm, yes I kinda forgot to mention them. Vampires and demons are both real, and while they aren't supposed to come out at Halloween maybe with this going on they will." That came out so fast he had a little trouble following it, but once he understood he quickly looked around again to see if there was any danger.

The Japanese girl was still standing next to him, and he approved of the way she was also looking for any possible threats. While the blonde wasn't doing anything useful, she had at least given up whimpering in favor of listening to the redhead. Aside from the four of them, he couldn't see anyone on the street though. Which was weird enough during Halloween. Still, without a soul in sight there was nothing to worry about. Oh. Wait. Wasn't it vampires who didn't have a soul?

"Thanks for telling us this so soon." This time Xander didn't even try to conceal the sarcasm in his voice. He still wasn't certain the girl was right in the head, maybe she had died because of some kind of head injury, but if she was legit she might have told him about this a little sooner. Preferably the moment she first opened her mouth. "I take it that I am allowed to shoot them?"

"Bullets don't work on vampires." This really just kept getting better and better, didn't it?

"What's next? You're going to tell me this is a resting place on the path to hell?"

Willow looked surprised at his comment before she smiled a little. "How did you know?"

No, there was no way that she could be serious. Xander was fairly certain he had all the information he needed for now, and he really needed to get rid of this crazy fool. "Okay little lady, if that's what you believe I won't tell you different. Now, why don't you hop along and find your librarian while I take care of these other two."

She looked crushed that he didn't believe her, and tried to defend herself. "It's not really a resting place, but there is a gate to hell here, a Hellmouth."

"Sure thing, honey, now since you at least seem to know your way around here. Where can I take these two?"

"No, I'm serious here. We get all kinds of dangerous creatures. A-and everybody comes here to end the world. Oh, and for like sixty years there was a master vampire trapped at the Hellmouth itself by an earthquake."

Right. Well that didn't really answer his question, but she had made him curious. "Where exactly is this Hellmouth then? In some sort of cave?"

"Yes, beneath the Highschool."

Ehm, okay. So this very dangerous place was right under a school. Sure, that made sense. "Does that mean that students try to blow it up?"

"No! You can't blow up the school, that's where you learn things."

"Oh, you're one of those. You are aware that you don't exactly dress like a typical bookworm, don't you? And how do you turn pages anyway? It's not like you can touch them," Xander teased the ghost with a smile.

"It's Halloween! I don't actually dress like this normally!"

"Yeah, whatever. So to return to the important stuff. Where can I take these two?"

While the redhead was opening her mouth for a reply, the decoration piece showed she could do more than scream and whimper. "Sir knight?"

Did she mean him? Looking down at his uniform he didn't think he looked like some kind of fool dressed in tons of steel, but he answered anyway. "What?"

"Once thou art finished with the courtesan-" He didn't hear what else she had to say as the look on the face of the so-called ghost caused him to burst out into laughter.

The blonde looked at him mortified, probably thinking he was laughing because of her, but he just couldn't stop laughing long enough to explain it to her. Willow apparently had enough of it, and once again tried to slap him. Alright. He now officially had enough of that. Didn't she know how strange it was to see someone's arm sticking out of you?

"Cut that out. You can go to Buffy's place, I'm sure Dawn can take you there." Great, to the house of the decorating piece. Xander wondered if she actually fit in with the rest of the decor.

"You know where to go, small fry?" He looked down at where he had last seen the girl, but she seemed to have disappeared. "Small fry?" Looking around for her he couldn't see her. It was then that the blonde finally got to say what she'd wanted to tell him.

"It is as I wanted to say, sir knight. The young girl departed while you were discussing the dangers of this horrible place."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Running through the street of the town, Kirika was busy trying to deal with what she'd learned. And what she'd learned so far wasn't something she was very happy about. Upon recovering from the strange dizziness that had overcome her she had realized that she was definitely not in Paris.

Glancing around she had then taken note of the architecture of the houses, the layout of the streets, even the stars that were visible, and of course the people themselves. While the last one didn't really seem to help her—nobody seemed to be dressed in any way that she could recognize—the other two had told her that she was most likely in the United States. It wasn't a big city, which meant either a suburb, or a small town. Not a village though, it was definitely bigger than that.

How she had come here was still an unanswered question, Kirika thought, and one that would have to be solved rather soon. The moment the people she was standing with—did they know her? And if so, how well did they know her?—starting talking, her suspicions about at least the country were confirmed.

The things they—Willow and Xander, she remembered—talked about seemed rather farfetched to her though. If she'd understood the redhead correctly the people had turned into their Halloween costume. Ridiculous of course. Except... the way everybody acted seemed a bit strange. Even for Americans.

Thankfully she had been spared that ordeal, and she obviously had to thank her own foresight for that. Unlike everybody else, she'd obviously worn something of herself which meant that when everybody turned into their costume she didn't change. Unfortunately, while being spared that, she had a bigger problem. One with which she was far too familiar.

Somebody had stolen her memories. Again! It might be caused by that spell, but that didn't make it any better.

A grim look appeared on Kirika's face as she wondered if the perpetrator had even the slightest idea of what they'd unleashed. Unlike the other time when somebody had dared to commit this crime against her, she only missed a part of her memories.

Her most precious memories—as far as she could remember—were still there. Her meeting with Mireille, their first tentative missions together, and the closeness that seemed to grow afterwards. Everything was there. Up until the moment they left the Manor. Had something happened there? Had the Soldats done something to them? Had her dressing like this been accidental, and had she thus regained at least part of her memories?

No. Shaking her head, Kirika realized that was unlikely. While they would have loved to have her under their control, she knew enough about the leadership of Soldats to know that they wouldn't want to risk having her hunt them down. Something that would have been inevitable.

Which meant that something else was going on. Somebody had tried to take away everything she remembered, and had failed in doing so. First things first though, she had to find her partner. Once she and Mireille were back together the memory-thieves would wish they had never thought up their plan. As the Americans would put it, Noir was pissed off.

Believing there was enough distance between her and the others, Kirika paused behind a garage to take stock of her situation. She was dressed in the clothes she had worn for the ritual at the Manor. While that at first glance seemed to imply that something had happened there the lack of any holes in the clothing showed that the outfit had been mended. Which once again seemed to imply that she had indeed deliberately chosen to wear this outfit.

This was getting too complicated to figure out on her own. She really needed Mireille: together they would be able to solve this mystery. When working together they had always managed to do what needed to be done. Right. A firm nod settled the decision, and Kirika once again focused on what was important right now.

She didn't have any wounds. That was something she'd checked the moment she knew she wasn't in any immediate danger. Even before she'd wondered where exactly she was. The weight on her back was familiar, and taking out what was hidden there she recognized the familiar and comforting form of her Beretta.

Taking it out, she quickly checked it and discovered that not only was she carrying a full clip, the gun was in perfect working order as well. Although she did wonder where she'd gotten this one. The memory of the moment she was hanging above the fiery pit underneath the Manor was clear in her mind, and she knew that her gun had fallen into it. This too was quickly dismissed. It wasn't important right now. She had a working weapon, and its origin could be debated later.

Checking the rest of her clothes she didn't find any spare clips, which meant that until she found a supplier Kirika would have to do with the seven bullets currently contained in her weapon. With all the danger this town apparently contained she wasn't certain whether that was enough, but as she didn't have any choice in the matter that too wasn't important right now. It had been sloppy of her though, and she was pretty sure that Mireille would chastise her for it.

Nevertheless, considering the fact that she was in the United States, it shouldn't be too hard to find any weapons that might be of use to her. A gun shop was a possibility, but without any proper tools on her the security measures might be too much for her to handle without detection. Still, Kirika had enough experience to know that even the most basic tools could be used as a deadly weapon.

The extensive training that had taken up her entire life had made her familiar with practically every weapon that had been in use for the last thousand years. It shouldn't be too hard to find something that she would be able to use. If only she knew what weapons would be useful against demons and vampires, whatever they might be. Maybe she shouldn't have left before Willow had gotten around to that part.

There was no sense in regretting that though. Once she knew the basics of what she might face in this town, she had no more need to listen to the bickering of those two and had snuck away.

"You're sure she went this way?" That sounded like the soldier, Xander. Who was with him? A quick look around the corner showed her that all three of the Americans were standing there. They obviously were looking for her, but how did they know?

"Dost thou not believe me?" The noble woman, she had forgotten about that one. Focused on slipping away before the soldier or ghost noticed her action; she hadn't paid enough attention to the silent blonde. An oversight that might cost her now.

"No, I'm sure you were right. After all, you seem the type that notices every tiny little thing people do so you can gossip about it later."

Not paying any more attention to the resulting argument, Kirika looked for somewhere to hide until they had passed. While the redhead seemed nice enough, she had called Kirika by what was obviously an alias. And there was the magic thing. She still wasn't sure what to make of that. Willow believed in it, that was obvious, and some of the things she'd seen so far seemed to indicate the redhead might be right about that, but it simply didn't make any sense.

Anyway, there was still the soldier that prevented her from letting them know where she was. When it came to him, she had no doubts at all. She didn't know where his allegiance lied, which made him a potential enemy. The natural state for anyone she wasn't a hundred percent certain of and who was carrying a weapon. The noblewoman wasn't even worth considering. That woman was so completely out of her depth that she was completely useless.

"Dawn! Where are you?" Willow shouted. Not even entertaining the thought of giving up her location, Kirika instead wondered about the strangeness of a ghost. One of those magical things she still couldn't get her head around. If a ghost was fully incorporeal, as was obviously the case, how was it possible for her to walk? Shouldn't she have sunk through the streets long before?

"Kid! Where are you?"

Now two of them were shouting for her. Didn't they have any tactical sense at all? If this town did indeed contain beings hostile to them, wouldn't these beings consider all this shouting an invitation? The three were getting closer to her location however, and she still didn't have a hiding place. Looking around she spotted a garage on top of which she would be hidden from her pursuers.

The roof was about a meter above her so she took a running leap, placed one foot on the wall for further leverage, and grabbed the edge of the roof. Using her remaining momentum she swung her body backwards and up, until she had performed a perfect somersault, and landed silently on top of the building.

Quietly she moved closer to the house, until she was hidden in the shadows. Almost certain that she wouldn't be detected, she sat down on the roof and took out the item that puzzled her the most. A gun could easily be replaced with a nearly identical one, but where did this watch come from? Tracing the pattern on the lid with her finger she allowed a tiny smile to appear on her face.

Now that she truly understood what the figures on the lid represented, they seemed even more beautiful than ever before. It was an image of the first of those who carried the name that she and Mireille had inherited. Only those of Soldats knew of the true origin of Noir, and even among them it was only a small number that was aware of the whole truth.

Noir, the black hands of Soldats, the thousand year darkness of Europe. All names for the most feared assassins who ever lived, and, despite the group they were once connected, to Kirika felt a sort of pride that she was one of those found worthy of carrying that name. If only that hadn't come at such a high price.

This watch was the one carried by Mireille's father. A man who, together with his wife and son, had been one of her first assignments over a decade ago. The pain she had caused her now partner also tore at her own heart. Even though she knew that she had been forgiven for that crime, killing the Corsican's family was one of the two times she truly regretted having killed someone. Even if it had taken a decade for that regret to appear.

Looking down at the street she found that the others had left to look elsewhere; leaving her free to proceed on her own. But before she did that, Kirika decided to open the watch, and listen to the soothing music that it played.

It was the taste of her own salty tears that eventually made her realize that she was letting herself be distracted. The bittersweet sound still had the power to make her remember certain events that she preferred not to dwell on, and she quickly closed the lid. Jumping down the relatively low roof posed no problem for the trained assassin, and within moments she was on her way again.

x.x.x

Unbelievable. Now he was stuck in hostile territory, looking for a little kid! How the mighty had fallen.

The soldier, who now knew his name was Xander, uttered a sigh of frustration. He really needed to find a place to store the blonde while he was looking for the little girl. Looking the decoration piece over again he had a sudden, but rather pleasant, thought. Considering that according to the redhead this was the road to hell maybe he should stop paving it and give up any good intentions. With some smooth talking he might be able to convince the girl to give up whatever vow of chastity she had taken. He was pretty certain that the redhead would try to put a stop to it if he made his move now, but he should be able to send her away sooner or later.

Cheered up by his plans he continued helping the redhead in the search for the girl. The actions of the ghost had more or less convinced him that she had been delusional earlier during her strange talk about vampires and other such nonsense. If they really existed she wouldn't be shouting like this: drawing attention to herself.

A noise behind him however made him turn around to where he saw two men looking them over. Normally he wouldn't mind the looks he received, but he really preferred it if it were women that looked at him like that—preferably good looking ones. These two certainly didn't fall into that category.

"Hey, have you two seen a Japanese girl? About this tall," Xander asked while holding up his hand to indicate the girl's height, "and wearing some kind of golden robe thing?"

"No, but we do see our dinner." And with those words the faces of the two men changed. Okay. So, this was what vampires looked like. No need to panic. Just because they are usually seen as unkillable, didn't mean he couldn't take these two down. Still, a bit of confirmation about these two wouldn't hurt.

"Hey, ghostgirl. Are these the vampires you were talking about, or just two more people who chose the wrong costume?" Xander shouted at the redhead without taking his eyes of the approaching figures.

"They're vampires, we must run." The girl sounded even more panicked then before, and he almost agreed with her but not quite.

"Nah, you said I could hurt these and I really need to get rid of some frustration here." Aiming his rifle at the vampires, he fired a two rounds in each of their torsos, and when he saw them fall down he spared a moment to show the redhead a smug smile. "See? Guns do work."

Unfortunately the girl wasn't looking at him but behind him with horrified eyes, and when he heard the next words he realized why.

"That stings mortal, you will suffer for that." Impossible. Aside from his own stupidity in not ensuring that an unknown enemy was permanently down, nobody should have survived those shots. Not without wearing some very good armor at least, and these two definitely weren't doing that.

Turning back, he saw that it obviously was possible. Well, weren't vampires technically dead? That would mean they hadn't survived the shots. Yes, that was true, and immediately made him feel a little better about his failure. By the way, if these guys were dead, couldn't they at least spend some of their time thinking up some good lines? Preferably ones that didn't sound as if they came from some kind of cheesy monster movie?

Looking at the two vampires, Xander could see where the bullets had hit them. They had gone straight through the clothes of the things, and had left wounds where he'd expected them. Except that the wounds didn't seem to bother them at all. Right. Bullets didn't have any effect. Okay. What to do? Oh yeah. When in doubt...

Before the vampires had a chance to do anything, Xander attacked. Running to the closest one, he tackled it to the ground with a sweeping kick, and while that vampire was still falling down he snapped out a kick at the other one. A shout of pain accompanied the impact and he knew that he'd managed to shatter its knee.

Turning his rifle around in his hands, he used the butt of the weapon to hit the vampire full in the face: doing his best to bash in its skull. A crunching sound told him that he'd been successful in at the very least breaking the vampire's nose, and as the creature fell bonelessly to the ground it had a greater effect than he had hoped for.

With one vampire down, Xander turned to confront the next one. Unfortunately, the vampire was a lot faster than he'd expected: not only had it gotten back to its feet; it had also closed the distance between them, and was diving at him! It happened so fast that the only thing he could do was try to hold it off with his rifle, but even so the two of them tumbled to the ground.

For a moment he came close to panicking: there was a vampire on top of him. A vampire who would have bitten him if he hadn't been keeping it away with the rifle. No time to panic! Bringing his mental state back under control, Xander focused his attention on finding a way out of this situation.

Thinking quickly, he remembered that while the bullets might not have killed the vampires, they had at least some effect. Firing several bullets in the vampire should therefore be more than adequate to get out of this situation. Except that by using the weapon to keep the vampire from biting him he was prevented from turning it at the vampire.

There were solutions for even that though. Taking a calculated risk, he let go of the rifle with his left hand, and using his knifed hand he struck the vampire in its throat. The sudden roar of pain as the creature's larynx was crushed bought him some more time, and, more importantly, the chance to decently aim his weapon.

Aiming at the vampire as best as he could in the limited space, he pulled the trigger until the vampire shook from the repeated impacts and reared even further back. Yes, the tables had turned now. Still, this wasn't the time to feel overconfident, and Xander tested a theory.

Burying the hot barrel of the rifle in the vampire's stomach, he got the expected result as a cry of anguish showed that heat was indeed a weakness for vampires. The stench of burning flesh—it wasn't that hot was it?—reached his nose, and Xander cursed the fact that he didn't have any means to set the vampire on fire. Still, he couldn't let wishes like that distract him, and once he was free to move Xander crushed the vampire's nose with the butt of his rifle. At least some parts of the weapon were useful.

As the vampire rolled off of him him, Xander himself rolled to his feet and looked around for something that might kill the creature. A white picket fence: so stereotypical it was cute. But if the stories were true he could use the wood it was made of to kill the vampire. Running over, he kicked loose a nice piece of jagged wood, and turned back to the vampires.

Only to find he hadn't been fast enough: the vampire he'd been fighting now held the blonde hostage.

"Sorry little soldier, but if you want this girl to survive you'll have to let us go. No killing for you tonight."

Cursing his own stupidity, and slow action, Xander wondered what he could do now. The other vampire was still unconscious on the ground, but he doubted that would last much longer. It was surprising that it had lasted this long. He had to find a way to get the blonde away from the vampire.

Before he had time to come up with a plan however, he spotted movement behind the vampire and the blonde, and when the vampire suddenly exploded in dust it revealed a brunette man carrying a wooden stake. Obviously someone who was better prepared than he'd been. What was more important however was that this confirmed that wood did indeed work. Wood worked!

As the words flashed through his mind, Xander was already running to the remaining vampire and quickly rammed the piece of fence in its heart. The way it turned into dust was intriguing—why did it take its clothes with it as well?—but once again not something he had time to ponder on. Dropping his makeshift stake, he swiveled around again and pointed his rifle at the forehead of the new arrival.

"And who the hell are you?" He wasn't going to take anything for granted again in this screwed up town.

x.x.x

Hearing the report of the gun, Kirika immediately recognized the type of weapon that had fired the shots. A rifle, most likely firing a 5.56mm round. It wasn't possible to recognize the type or model of the rifle, but as she had so far seen only one weapon falling into that category she was willing to assume for the moment that it was the soldier. Especially when she figured in the general direction and distance from her.

Apparently he had run into something that warranted firing his weapon, and for her this was reason enough to steer away from that part of the town. The shots themselves had another effect though, something that seemed strange to her. While the monsters running all over the place had managed to frighten what few sane people were still around, it seemed as if the shots had an even greater impact.

Why? It was only a rifle. There was no use in wondering about that now though, and Kirika filed it away as just another piece of the puzzle that she'd have to examine later. What was annoying was that these people had started running all over the place in their panic, getting in her way. It was only the need to stay inconspicuous, and her limited number of bullets, that prevented her from firing some rounds herself so she would have clear passage.

Turning down another empty street she finally located a store that contained useful items. Checking the door of the hunting store she realized that the lock was good enough to prevent her from opening it with what little tools she was carrying. Which meant that she'd better be sure there was something useful in there before she'd do anything else. Walking to the window, Kirika peered through the safety glass in an attempt to identify anything she had a use for.

The crossbows on display looked rather nice, but if guns didn't help against vampires it made sense that more primitive projectile weapons would be equally useless. It didn't matter anyway, there was no way she could walk around with a crossbow without anyone noticing. And until she'd met up with Mireille, remaining unnoticed was exactly what she needed.

Luckily there were at least some weapons in here that she might be able to use. Looking deeper into the store she noticed a case containing hunting knives, and it was those that she wanted. While not a perfect weapon in any situation, they would be sufficient for her needs.

Having made her decision, Kirika looked for something she could use to break the window of the shop. There wasn't much, but spotting a trashcan in front of another shop she was relieved that there was no need to sacrifice one of her precious bullets. Taking the lid, Kirika studied the window for a moment before swinging the lid against it with all the strength in her body.

It was loud, and while the glass was still cascading down she looked around with slight trepidation in case anyone would come out in an attempt to stop her. When there was no movement on the street by the time all the glass had crashed to the floor, she turned back to her goal and stepped through the large opening.

Once inside, the crunching sound of the glass beneath her sandals was the only thing she could hear, and she quickly made her way to the knives she'd selected earlier. The glass cover on the case was easily cracked with the butt of her gun, and careful not to leave any prints Kirika took four of the knives, before once again leaving the store. She hadn't been inside for more then maybe a minute, and was gone long before the police might have had a chance of appearing. Picking up the trashcan lid, she dumped it in an alley where it wouldn't be connected to the break in.

The knives might not be very useful against those creatures either, but the fact that she wasn't dependent on a mere seven bullets made her feel a lot more comfortable. It was time to consider her next move. With the knives she might be able to force the locks of a weapon shop, although if she wanted that she'd better search for some tools. A crowbar or something similar would provide her with a far greater chance of success. So, once again she resigned herself to having only a limited number of bullets. In any case, now that she was at least somewhat capable of defending herself against attack, she had to focus on finding her partner. But where to start?

x.x.x

"Angel!" The redhead yelled happily, and Xander had to stop himself from shaking his head. That girl really was delusional. Even in this screwed-up town where ghosts looked like working girls he really doubted any self-respecting angel would look like that.

"Willow, do you know what's going on?" Huh, the guy knew the redhead? And he still seemed sane? Impressive.

"Once again, who the hell are you and if you don't answer within ten seconds I'll put a bullet through your head." When tact isn't enough use force to stress your request.

"Xander? What's wrong with you? It's me Angel."

"Is that your name, or do you really believe you are one?"

"What?" The guy seemed incredulous at the question and Xander had to admit that it sounded silly, but he really needed to know. "It's my name of course, you know that."

"I have some kind of memory loss, so Angel huh? Let me guess, your parents were rather fond of Woodstock?" Man, he really couldn't stop himself could he? One of these days he was going to say something to the wrong guy and pay the price. But that was for the future to worry about. Now it was important to find out whether the guy was a threat or not.

"My hero!" What? All the guy had done was put a piece of wood into someone's back, and the blond decoration piece considered him her hero? That clinched it: the guy had to go if he was interfering with his chances at a love life.

"What's wrong with Buffy?" While the guy didn't seem to mind the blonde hanging on his neck it was obviously not something he had expected, and, ignoring all the questions Xander had asked him, he focused on the redhead.

"We've all changed into our costumes and she was dressed like that."

"How did that happen?"

"I don't know and now nobody knows who they are, except me."

"How come you weren't affected?"

"I was dressed as a ghost, but the only thing that happened to me is that I can't touch anything anymore. The others don't remember who they are, except Dawn, but she ran away. Have you seen her?"

"Dawn? Buffy's sister?" The Japanese girl was the sister of the decoration piece? Poor girl, no wonder she bailed, Xander thought while Angel continued. "I haven't seen her."

"Okay people, let's hold on for a moment and decide what we're going to do next."

"And that is Xander?"

"Yes."

"He almost seems competent." Okay, he had been so close to forgiving the guy, but that wasn't something he should have said.

"Hey, at least I don't have to buy a gallon of hairgel a week. Don't you know how to use a mirror?"

That seemed to shut the guy up for a moment, but when Angel seemed to get a guilty look on his face a rather unpleasant idea came to Xander.

"Ehm, I ah."

"You are not gonna tell me you're a freaking vampire are you?" The rifle was once again aimed at the suspected bloodsucker, but Willow jumped in front. Not that that was useful or anything.

"Xander, he's a good guy. He has a soul."

He wanted to comment on that, but didn't get the chance as the blonde had suddenly realized what she was hanging on and let out an earsplitting shriek.

"Back demon, back." When the vampire let her go—not that he was holding her back—she quickly returned where she belonged: at his side.

"Now explain yourself, bloodsucker." And Angel, obviously realizing they wouldn't do anything until he had explained himself, told the whole sordid tale of his current state.

"You're as crazy as the working girl, but at least your actions have shown that you're on the right side. Now according to ghost-girl your kind can't enter houses until invited right?"

"That's true."

"Good, then the first thing we do is to take this beautiful lady to a safe place." Sweet talking seemed to be useful as the flighty thing batted her eyelashes at him. "Once we've done that we'll go look for the little girl, meanwhile you." And he pointed at the redhead. "Will go to this Giles you were blathering about, and tell him what's going on. The sooner this nonsense is over with the sooner I can go back to my unit."

Luckily she didn't try to tell him again he wasn't real as that would have really pissed him off. "Good idea, oh Angel can lead you to Buffy's house. She'll be safe there."

Wonderful, Xander had planned to send the reflection-less creature on an errand, but now it seemed as if he was stuck with him. "How long will you need to talk to this Giles?"

"Why?"

For once not resisting the urge to roll his eyes he told her. "Because, little lady, that way we can arrange a place to meet where you can tell us what he thinks is going. Geez, can't you even touch your brains anymore either?" Xander knew his behavior was getting worse but he was starting to run out of patience.

"Once you've got your memory back you are so gonna be sorry about that Xander Harris." Terrific she was back to telling him he wasn't real. "But to answer your question I can probably meet you back at Buffy's house. I'll just take the shortcut, so just wait for me there."

Shortcut? Before he could ask her about it she turned and ran, straight through the wall of a house. Looking at Angel he realized the creature was as freaked out about this as he was.

"She wasn't kidding about being a ghost was she?" Angel asked him.

"Nope."

"I never thought ghosts looked like some common harlot though." Laughing hard, Xander thought that maybe, just maybe, for a creature of the night the guy wasn't that bad after all.

x.x.x

Kirika was still a bit shaken up. Sure, her training hadn't deserted her when faced with something that was impossible, but the event had definitely had an impact on her. Could it really have been a little kid like Willow had said? That would mean she'd just shot an innocent child. But what else could she have done?

The tiny demon had attacked her, not the other way around. Even if it was actually a child, she had only acted in her own defense, and that wasn't the part she was really shaken up about anyway. It wasn't the first time she'd killed a young child. In fact, she doubted Mireille's brother had been much older than this kid when he had met his death at her hands.

No, what really bothered her was the fact that the creature had acted so unlike a human that it was obvious that, whatever demons actually were, there was no humanity in them. Maybe there were more intelligent ones—in which case they might actually serve as potential informants—but she'd have to see one before she believed it. It had tried to bite her! The most illogical attack she'd ever faced! Bite her! Why?

She hadn't used her gun immediately, first trying to handle the tiny demon with a knife. Brandishing it, she had made the tiny critter step back, but not for long. A single slash across its body had once again forced it back, but hadn't put it out of the fight. In the end she'd drawn her gun and shot it. The more vulnerable parts of its body—at least what in a normal human were vulnerable parts—were mostly covered in scales.

Except for its throat. While she knew that there was probably a little kid inside, she couldn't take the risk of it killing her. Raising her gun she pulled the trigger, and with a scream of agony the monster went down while clutching at its throat. Had she missed? Was the demon less vulnerable there than she'd believed?

Debating whether or not she should check if it was mortally wounded, she heard the sound of a horde of other tiny demons coming in her direction. Looking in that direction, she saw them coming. No two of them looked alike, and to her eyes they weren't anything that could have evolved naturally. Not feeling like facing more of them, she had refrained from ensuring the first one was dead and had instead run away. Never fight a battle you cannot win.

"Dawn? Is that you?"

Turning around Kirika looked at the girl who had just spoken to her. This one appeared to be dressed as a cat, and like her didn't seem to be affected by the magic thing. "Yes."

"Good, I thought it was you. Where is your sister? She is supposed to be the one that keeps these things from bothering me." Sister? Could the girl be talking about Mireille? Were the two of them pretending to be sisters? That would make sense... except that from the way the girl spoke her supposed sister obviously had knowledge of demons. A knowledge that her partner had never displayed as far as she could remember. The possibility that Mireille had hidden that knowledge from her wasn't something that she even needed to contemplate. That was simply ridiculous.

"I don't know." That seemed to be the simplest answer, and considering she had no idea who her sister was supposed to it had the additional benefit of being the truth.

"You don't know where Buffy is?" Oh, the noblewoman was supposed to be her sister. That seemed a bit strange to her, and the catgirl noticed her doubt. "What?"

If this Buffy was pretending to be her sister, Kirika thought, she should help the blonde regain her memories. Then Buffy would be able to tell her where Mireille was. The girl before her obviously knew about the demons and magic stuff, and was therefore a potential ally. Not that she trusted the cat-girl, but she might be useful. "Buffy turned into a noblewoman."

"Really?" the cat-girl asked incredibly. "So it's some kind of spell or something?"

"Yes."

The girl suddenly seemed to realize something. "Wait a minute, I thought Buffy didn't tell you about these things. How come you know about them now?"

"Willow."

The brunette slowly nodded her head. "Yeah, that makes sense. Now that's one girl who can't keep her mouth shut. So, do you have any idea where they could be? This is ruining my evening, and I want everything back to how it's supposed to be."

Kirika had to think about how to answer this, she really didn't want to risk letting anyone know about her amnesia until she had found her partner. "They wanted to keep Buffy somewhere safe."

"The library?"

"No, that's where Willow was going. Xander would take Buffy somewhere safe."

"The geeks split up? I'd think that they would consider that too dangerous."

"Willow is a ghost, but looks more like what Xander called a working girl, and he is a soldier. One who seemed at least marginally competent." If you didn't count the shouting in enemy territory bit.

"Hold on a minute! Dweeb-boy called Willow a working girl?"

Kirika only nodded to indicate this was true, and this caused the cat-girl to burst out in laughter. "Oh my, I would've loved to see that. Oh, but she didn't know who it was that said it, did she?"

"She did, Willow retained her memory."

"Even better." The smile on the cat-girl's face seemed very smug, and Kirika had a feeling the girl wasn't very fond of the redhead. "But let's think first, where would dweeb-boy take her?"

Since Kirika didn't know where they had gone either the two decided to look around while walking to what was apparently her house as well. Barely having started they heard someone behind them speak up. "What do we have here?"

"Larry." The tone of voice used by Kirika's companion made it clear she wasn't interested in talking to the boy—or was it a man?—dressed like a pirate.

"Aargh, 'tis great being me. I came to port here and was looking for some action," he leered at them. "And now I seem to have found it."

The brunette responded in a disgusted voice as the pirate approached. "You have got to be kidding me." Looking at Kirika she simply asked. "Spell?"

"Probably."

"Let's go, I have no wish to stay here while he makes a fool of himself."

"Not so fast girlie. I haven't had my action yet and you will give it to me, or my name isn't..." Confused the pirate stopped his approach, probably wondering what his name was, and the girls used that time to walk away.

They didn't get far however before the pirate grabbed the cat-girl by the shoulder, and tried to do the same to Kirika. Both of them reacted instantaneously in their own distinct ways.

While the cat-girl turned around with a scream about her clothes, and how he had no right to touch her, Kirika's turn was silent and focused on defense. She needed this girl, which meant that nobody was allowed to harm her. There was no hesitation on Kirika's part as she first dodged the pirate's attempt to grab her, and then took one of her knives.

Unfortunately the cat-girl was between her and the pirate, slowing her down. Not that it was necessary, as her companion didn't accept such treatment and upon finishing her own turn immediately kneed the pirate in the crotch. Seeing this, Kirika put the knife back, and instead opted to carefully kick the suffering pirate in the head. That would be sufficient to keep him out of her way without the need to endanger her own cover.

Bending over to check his pulse, she confirmed he was alright and started to walk away. The cat-girl had other plans however. "We can't just leave him here!"

"Why not? He'll live." The sudden change in demeanor of the girl came as a surprise.

"Well duh, because of the vampires of course."

The vampires, if they or any demons would find the boy he would probably die. She had briefly forgotten about this, but even now that she remembered she didn't really see a reason to move the boy. While she wasn't into casual murder—that was unprofessional—she was an assassin, and not into the saving people business. The girl might be useful later though, so it would be better if she didn't alienate her. "Forgot about that. Where can we put him?"

….…

The walk through the town had been strange everywhere the two of them looked there was total chaos. Children were running around in fear because their friends had suddenly turned into demons or human terrors. Once they even saw two pint-sized superheroes having a fight about who was allowed to rescue a certain damsel in distress. A tiny damsel who didn't stop screaming for help as her attackers seemed to ignore the bickering heroes.

"This kind of thing can only happen in Sunnydale." Her companion sighed, unknowingly informing Kirika of her current location. Sunnydale, somewhere in the United States didn't help her a lot, but she was confident more information would be made available to her later.

"Cordelia!" That sounded like the redhead, Willow, and she turned around to see where the ghost was. The frazzled looking girl didn't seem to have noticed her yet however, and was instead focused on Kirika's companion, for who she now finally had a name as well.

As the panting girl—how could something intangible pant? How could she even breathe?—reached them, she started explaining to Cordelia that she wasn't really a cat but a girl. The brunette cut her off however.

"Rude much? I know who I am, working girl."

"What? How?" Willow then caught sight of Dawn, and wailed her name. "How could you do that to me?"

"Don't blame the messenger, blame the message. Besides it's not like it could ruin your non-existing reputation at school; in fact it might even improve it." The last being delivered with a nasty smile.

Kirika didn't know what she had done wrong, but offered a soft apology nonetheless.

"Hey kid, don't apologize for being the smart one in your family. Just because your sister likes to hang out with losers like her and Harris doesn't mean you have to be infected with the same disease."

"Cordy! That's not nice."

"What a coincidence is that? Let me tell you a secret Rosenburg. Nice is not something that I am." And with a smile of superiority on her face she started to walk away. "Coming Dawn?"

She was starting to like the catgirl, in some ways the honest and outspoken girl reminded her of Mireille. The blonde had never tried to hide her intentions either—unless they were on a mission of course— and had the same blunt outspokenness. Even when they had just met her partner had been honest about the fact that in the end Kirika would die at her hands. The fact that when it came to it the Corsican hadn't been able to come through didn't diminish the honesty behind the promise when it was made.

However, the gaping redhead had answers that they might need. "Where's Buffy?"

Cordelia turned around at that. "Yeah, you probably know where she is and what's going on. According to Dawn you were going to get info from Giles. Spill."

"Why should I tell you anything? I can be not nice as well." The girl now had a look at her face that looked rather resolved, and the way she stared at Cordelia told Kirika that the redhead wouldn't talk unless given a reason to.

"I'm worried." It wasn't a lie. Just because she wasn't worried about Buffy didn't mean she wasn't worried about other things.

And it seemed to work as Willow's resolve face melted as she turned to face her. "You shouldn't have run away, then you would have been with her now."

"Can you blame her? With the Slayer a useless piece of fluff and only Xander to protect her? I would've run away from you as well."

With an explanation handed to her she didn't need to think of one of her own and just stared at the redhead with what Mireille had once told her were her puppy-dog eyes.

Willow wasn't immune to that, and explained the situation to them. "I haven't gone to Giles yet, I had to help Xander get Buffy home first, but when they were safe with Angel I was free to go to Giles, which is where I'm going right now. Oh, and we also spent a lot of time looking for Dawn."

Wow. That was a lot of information in a short time. Was that what babbling was? Anyway, if Willow thought that little barb at the end could make her feel guilty she obviously didn't really know Kirika. Luckily, Willow quickly came to the point again. "But I don't know why some people are affected and others aren't."

"And the piece of fluff? She's supposed to keep this kind of thing from interfering with people who actually have lives," Cordelia demanded.

"She's not a piece of fluff!" Willow defended her friend.

Cordelia merely smirked, obviously enjoying this very much. "Really? That's not what Dawn told me."

A scream of frustration was the answer to that comment, but once she'd calmed down the redhead curtly told them that everyone was at the Summers' house, and stomped off to find Giles.

While Kirika considered the information she could find in the house where she, supposedly, lived, Cordelia had a smirk on her face as she looked at the retreating figure. "Well, that was fun."

x.x.x

Finally. The moment they reached the house, Xander let out a sigh of relief and the decoration piece detached herself from him. Not that he had really minded feeling her pressed against him—quite the contrary actually. It felt great, and the look on the bloodsucker's face was entertaining as well, but there had been certain moments he wished she would have behaved like a normal woman. Every single time they encountered something that her eighteenth-century brain couldn't comprehend Buffy had shrieked in his ear. As a result a pounding headache was starting to rear its ugly head, and he really didn't like that.

"This is it?"

"Yes." The vampire answered shortly. Just like he'd answered every question in as few words as possible. Xander didn't know if it was because of the girl or something else, but he had soon discovered that the bloodsucker wasn't the world's greatest conversationalist.

They entered the house, and once he was standing in the hallway Xander had the happy job of saying goodbye to the walking corpse. "So, I take it this is goodbye then?"

"What? Why?"

"Your kind can't enter houses, can they?"

Smirking Angel simply stepped past him into the house, and told him. "I've got an invitation."

Damn! How could he spend any quality time with the blonde if the Dracula wannabe was still around? Sighing Xander decided to look around in the house for something to drink. Because he really felt like he could use one now.

Unfortunately, after looking through the house for several minutes he found that his problems were far from over. Whatever fool lived in this house didn't even have beer! There were a couple of bottles with more potent drinks, but that would just befuddle his mind and that was a stupid thing to do while in hostile territory.

In an attempt to appear gallant, or whatever, he had then asked the girl if she wanted something to drink. Which she did, as long as it was wine. Right. As if. Giving that girl alcohol would be even more stupid than drinking it himself. So now both of them were sitting on a couch, he with a glass of coke—which the blonde claimed she wouldn't drink under any circumstance—and she with some kind of juice he'd discovered in the fridge.

What should he do? He'd had very inventive plans for once he'd ditched the vampire, but that was no longer an option. Xander glared at at the back of the vampire who had taken it on himself to stand vigilance at the window. When the blonde noticed where his attention was directed, she huddled closer to him until he could once again feel every curve of her body pressed against him. Since he could feel her shivering in fear he—like the gentleman he was—put his arm around her in an attempt to make her feel safe.

No matter how much he liked that though, his practical nature reasserted itself and Xander decided it was time to gather more information. "So fang-face, what do you think is going around in this messed-up excuse for a town?"

"I don't know what the problem is now, but..." Angel trailed off as he saw something outside. "I think Cordelia is coming, together with a Japanese girl."

"Japanese girl? That could be that Dawn girl. Let me look." Regretfully disengaging himself from Buffy, Xander walked over to join Angel at the window. "Yep, that's her. I don't know who the other one is but she wears her costume with style. Man she looks good."

A brief fantasy concerning the approaching brunette, and the blond decoration piece, flashed through Xander's mind while he walked to the door to let the two girls in. "Hello Dawn, where have you been?"

When he didn't receive an answer he turned to the other. "And you are? A ghost as well? You are kinda dressed like the other one."

A slap on his face proved that this girl was not a ghost, and he really shouldn't have said that if he wanted his fantasy to become true in any way. "Saying things like that to Rosenberg is funny Harris, but to me you will be polite."

The ghost of a smile had appeared on the young girl's face, and he now turned to her in an attempt to cover up his mistake. "Why did you run away? Don't you understand it's dangerous out there?"

"Oh puh-leaze, can you really blame her for not trusting in your protection, loserboy?"

"Was I talking to you? No I didn't think so, had that been the case my first question would have been about your hourly rate."

Another slap was his answer to that barb, but this time he was able to intercept the hand before it reached his face. He was so fascinated by her flashing eyes that he completely missed the knee that was aimed at a particular sensitive region of his body. The knee on the other hand didn't miss and with tears in his eyes Xander crashed to the floor.

x.x.x

Fascinated by the scene, Kirika could only watch how Cordelia just continued into the house without even glancing at the groaning boy lying on the floor. While the girl's action had seemed a bit like overkill, Kirika had a feeling it was more aimed at releasing frustration than any actual anger at Xander.

And if it wasn't, well nobody said that people actually had to make sense. Closing the door behind her, Kirika quickly followed Cordelia into the living room where she noticed the blonde who was pretending to be her sister—under normal circumstances at least—and another person who was identified by Cordelia as Angel.

Looking around the room in an attempt to trigger her latent memories she didn't notice anything that might give her a clue to her partner's location. Using the excuse of getting something to drink, she then walked into the kitchen and had a look around there. There were things missing. Well, not so much missing as not there. The kitchen looked pretty much complete except... there were things that she was used to having in her kitchen that weren't here.

They might be stored in one of the cupboards, but it wasn't important enough to examine that right now. She was here for useful information, and any message left in the kitchen would have been hidden in plain sight. No, time to look somewhere else. Leaving the kitchen, she returned to the living room where she heard the others discuss what to do.

"Can't we do anything now?" Xander asked, while obviously keeping his distance from Cordelia.

The new guy, Angel, only shook his head. "It's probably best if we wait for Willow. If she is talking to Giles right now they might have found something we can use."

"Doesn't this Giles have a phone?"

"Everybody has a phone," Cordelia said while rolling her eyes.

"Why don't we call him then? That would mean we wouldn't have to wait."

That sounded as a pretty good plan to Kirika, but the reaction of the others showed it was unlikely to happen. It was Angel who spoke up first. "I don't have his number."

They then turned to Cordelia, who looked at them with an expression that clearly showed she couldn't believe they'd ask her that. "What? You think I'm going to have the number of a stuffy librarian? It's bad enough that I've got Buffy's in case for emergencies. Imagine what it would do to my reputation if someone found out."

Okay, they would be distracted by their discussion for a while yet. Even if they weren't, they wouldn't leave. Which gave her all the time she needed to check upstairs. The most logical place for her to leave clues was in her room, where it would be safer than downstairs.

Not knowing which room was hers, Kirika checked them all. First she walked into the master bedroom, which was obviously used by the woman posing as her mother. It was unlikely a clue was left there, but just because she didn't expect it, didn't mean it wasn't there. A quick search proved her suspicions to be correct and she left the room again.

Two bedrooms left. Taking a peek into both of them showed her that they each appeared to belong to an American teenager, although the size of the clothing strewed around the room showed her which was hers. Not that she was happy with the way it looked as it appeared she took her cover very seriously. She would need the most time in her own room, and therefore decided to check the one belonging to Buffy first.

An extensive search didn't yield many useful clues. Except for the hidden stash of weapons that were probably for use against the creatures that supposedly ran around the town. The fact that she hadn't run into any of those creatures—she didn't count the child/monster—had raised some doubts about their existence. The weapons and, more importantly, the signs that they had been used quite extensively offered substantiality to the various claims of their existence.

There was even a crossbow among those weapons. Something that made her wonder if she had perhaps made a mistake earlier by not taking one. Nothing she could do anything about right now though. Well, she could take some of these weapons. That would endanger her cover though, and without any need as well.

No, she was only here for information. Not that there was anything useful in here aside from opening the diary that had been hidden in one of the drawers. She'd opened it, but at a first glance it hadn't looked like anything other than the normal ramblings of an American teenager. If you could call that normal. The mere memory of the ridiculous contents she'd skimmed through was enough to cause a shiver of disgust to run down her back.

Walking to her own room, Kirika started searching it for information. Here she also found a diary, and she read this one extensively. Unfortunately it seemed to be full of the same drivel that she had suspected the other one to contain. The lengths she went to keep her cover were simply incredible. Writing all this nonsense down must have been an incredible effort.

At least there were some clues in there as well. While the early entries didn't contain anything, it was later on that she noticed the first mention of Noir. Usually together with a mention of two girls called Jane and Sara. It was all in code though.

For some reason she had pretended her real life was an anime series, and while this way nobody would suspect her true identity it didn't help her right now as she had no idea how to crack the code. With the diary useless she looked around for other clues. She tried everything, from paging through the various books lining the walls to checking the desk, and even ended up crawling underneath the bed to see if anything was hidden there.

In the end it was all a waste of time.

The only useful thing in the room was the diary, and she didn't know how to use that. Nowhere else had there been even the slightest hint of either her mission or Mireille's location, and this completely mystified her. For a moment she debated looking further in the house in case she might have hidden the information elsewhere, but decided against it. If the information had been hidden it was unlikely it was any less secure then the code she had encountered. This left only one option, one that she hadn't wanted to use since it would be traceable and might alert whoever was after her. She really needed to contact her partner though and therefore reached for the phone.

"Operator, how can I help you?"

"I would like to make a collect call to a number in Paris, France."

"Of course, what is your name and the number you want to call?"

The number was ingrained in Kirika's mind, and she gave it to the operator who then asked her to wait. During the wait, Kirika wondered if Mireille was indeed in their apartment. It made more sense if her partner was in the United States as well, but she had to check nonetheless. And if the answering machine was active, she could check that for any clues.

That would of course bring its own danger, as she couldn't check that with a collect call and would instead have to make the call in such a way that it would show up on the phone bill. Unfortunately, that action proved unnecessary when she finally heard a voice coming over the line. Although it wasn't the familiar tones of her partner, but once again the operator.

"I'm sorry miss but that connection seems to be out of order. Are you certain you have the correct number?"

Yes, she was certain, but she wasn't certain if Mireille had already fixed the damage to the apartment that had been inflicted when Soldats had attacked them there. Unfortunately she couldn't really tell the operator that the phone might be shot to pieces so she simply asked him to try Mireille's mobile phone instead.

"I'm sorry miss, but that number can't be reached either. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"No." Hanging up the phone, Kirika tried not to worry about her partner's fate. Like she'd already concluded, it didn't make any sense for her to be in Paris. And the mobile phone might have been broken in any of a hundred ways, or even been compromised, forcing Mireille to take a new number. The fact that she couldn't reach her didn't have to mean her beautiful partner was in danger, and waiting for an amnesiac Kirika to rescue her. The idea didn't leave her alone however, and she started thinking about who might have the information she needed.

The blonde, Buffy, was out until the spell had been lifted, but waiting for that might take too long and she really couldn't take the chance. That left only one other person. Going through the stuff in the house had told her that the most likely place for the older woman to be was at her gallery, and a description of how to reach that by foot had been pinned above the desk in her room. Which seemed to be a clue in and of itself.

Knowing that the others would try to prevent her from leaving Kirika climbed out of the window, intent on finding Joyce Summers and getting the information she needed.

By any means necessary.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"That's just sick, Harris," the brunette named Cordelia told him with a disgusted look on her face. "Taking advantage of the situation by having her crawl all over you. Even Buffy has better taste than that when she's sane."

Xander only glared at her in reply as the last thing he wanted from her were more comments. In the short time since he'd met her, he had already learned that, compared to her tongue, Cordelia's knee was a mere secondary weapon. A secondary weapon that was already bad enough on its own, but the pain of which would at least go away. Her sharp barbs on the other hand followed him around the room. It was as if she knew he wouldn't hit a woman, or girl actually, and had made it her life's work to annoy him.

The fact that she might possibly perhaps be right about this latest statement—the taking advantage part, not the taste thing—was yet another thing that annoyed him. Anyway, he refused to feel guilty for it. Was it his fault he was this irresistible to the decoration piece? Besides, Cordelia obviously wasn't an impartial observer when it came to him. Like Willow she seemed to have known him for a long time. Of course, Willow had been nice about it.

"She is right Xander, you don't know how Buffy will react once the spell has worn off," the vampire agreed with Cordelia.

"You shut up," Xander said while pointing at the bloodsucker. "You weren't invited for this discussion, and should know to be quiet when your betters are speaking. And with betters I mean those actually capable of standing in the sunlight."

"Hah! Like anyone could mistake you for their better. If Angel wants to speak he can do so." Is that how it was? She preferred the vampire over him?

"Wait a minute, you're helping a vampire against a human?"

"Not any vampire, Angel, and besides when it concerns you I can't think of a better way to spend my time."

"Are you always this much of a bitch, or is this some kind of special occasion?"

The smirk on her face showed him the answer before she even opened her mouth. "I always am, but I have to admit that your comments at the door didn't exactly help your situation either."

Like he had told himself earlier, his big mouth had finally managed to land him in trouble. At his side the blonde had enough of the girl's attitude and decided to help him. "How dare you speak like that to mine noble knight!"

"Watch it blondie, your accent is slipping. You're starting to sound like a member of the common people again."

Outrage at this slur was evident on the pretty face, and Buffy retorted again. "Thou art a harlot, the likes of thee oughtn't be allowed to speak like that."

"That hurt little girl. Why don't you go, and cry about how unfair the world is?" Cordelia said, obviously enjoying the chance to put the Slayer in her place.

"Hey, stop teasing her. She can't help her current situation." Cordelia was really starting to go too far now. If she went on like this she might actually succeed in driving away his favorite decoration piece. Something he didn't want to happen despite his own doubts about the fairness of it all.

"My thanks, noble knight. Forasmuch as thou hast protected mine person countless times in this cruel world wouldst I thank thee with a kiss."

He had to think a little before he had managed to decipher that message, but once he did Xander was more than happy to accept the offering. His just reward actually. Despite all the harassing of the others, and their continued presence, he was now finally going to find out how those beautiful lips tasted. How they would perfectly melt against his own, giving him the chance to explore the girl's mouth with his tongue.

"You are so gonna regret that Buffy. Trust me on this. Tomorrow you'll wish this was just a nightmare, and then I'll be there to remind you it wasn't."

Ignoring Cordelia, Buffy had gotten up on her feet, and Xander closed his eyes in eager anticipation of the moment he'd been waiting for ever since he woke up in this messed up town. Of course, he hadn't been waiting for the gagging sounds he could hear coming from Cordelia, but he could tune that out. Sure he could. Just because the brunette was very beautiful and wasn't afraid to say what she meant, didn't mean he should be thinking about her now.

So he didn't. Raising his head, Xander allowed a smile to play on his lips as he waited for the indescribable feeling he was going to feel anytime now. Anytime now. Come on, what was keeping her? Hurry up already! And then it happened... but not like he'd expected.

All he felt was a feather-light peck on his forehead, and it took Xander several moments, and some snickering from the peanut gallery, to understand what had happened. She'd only given him a peck on his forehead? What kind of idiocy was that? He'd been looking forward to a decent make-out session! Opening his eyes, he could see Buffy beaming as if she had just done him the greatest possible favor, and looking at the other two he could see that Cordelia wasn't even trying to keep her laughter in check while Angel was still deciding if he should smile or frown.

"That's it?" Xander demanded of Buffy, close to outrage at her action.

"But of course, noble knight. What didst thou believe mine statement to mean?"

Before he had a chance to answer that ridiculous statement, Cordelia spoke up. "You know Xander, I think you were right after all. It isn't really fun to fight a battle of wits with an unarmed person."

Looking at the girl still standing in front of him, wondering how she would react to that statement, Xander could almost feel the other two do the same. Eventually, Buffy understood something had been said about her, and when she understood what it was she let her opinion of that be known. Loud and long.

….…

"Shut up!" The short sentence was suddenly shouted through the discussion that had been going on for quite a while now. Xander wasn't entirely happy with that command since he had been about to bestow a very well thought out insult on the vampire, but complied nonetheless when he saw who had shouted.

"Willow," he acknowledged her. "Did you talk to your Giles?"

"Yes." She looked a little weary and he had the feeling that had she been able to she would have sat down. "He thinks it probably has something to do with the costumes."

"No," Xander replied, trying to sound as sarcastic as possible. Just because she was tired didn't mean he wouldn't try to rile her up. He had gotten in the mood.

"Xander!" Yep, he still had the touch, but even so her attention didn't stay on him for long. "Cordelia, where did you buy your costume?"

"What? Why do you want to know?"

"Why can't you just answer the question!" Hmm, the girl sounded more and more stressed every time she opened her mouth.

"Because I want to know why Rosenberg. I don't take commands from anyone, let alone you. If you want someone to do as you say without question, you'll need the army reject over there."

"Hey!" Xander protested, that wasn't nice. Not that he should have expected Cordelia to say anything nice, but this went a bit too far. "I wasn't rejected!"

Nobody paid him any attention though, and with a sigh Willow gave up on convincing Cordelia of that. "Okay. It's pretty simple. Xander and Buffy bought their costumes at the new store, and they both turned into their suits. Giles and I suspected it had something to do with that."

"You mean Ethan's? No I didn't buy there. But hey! If you didn't get your ghost costume there how come you changed?"

"I got these clothes there, but we can ask Dawn where she got hers as well. That would be even more proof."

"Wait a minute, how exactly does that work? I mean you bought your working suit at the store, and pulled a sheet over it. And that caused you to turn into Sunnydale's one and only working ghost?"

"Oh, nice one," Xander complimented Cordelia.

"I know, I'm good," the girl beamed back at him, obviously happy with her own comment, before she suddenly remembered that she was supposed to be angry at him, and once more showed him her patented glare.

"I don't know how it works, but if Dawn didn't buy hers at Ethan's either, we might have a clue on how to stop it."

"Oh very well, where did Dawn go anyway?" Cordelia said, giving up on annoying the redhead. For a moment Xander debated about continuing where she had left off, but decided against it.

"Last time I saw her she went upstairs," the vampire spoke up, startling Xander as he'd completely forgotten it was still there as well.

"I'll go and get her. She was probably tired of having you people around. You know, for someone afflicted with Buffy as a sister she's quite normal." Having made her statement, the brunette got up from where she was sitting, and walked upstairs in search of the young girl.

Letting himself fall into the couch, Xander sighed once he was certain Cordelia could no longer hear him. "Finally some peace."

Willow looked at him a little envious, probably wanting to sit herself, but was quick enough to agree. "She can be a bit taxing, can't she?" Huh. Obviously the two of them weren't very fond of each other.

"Cordelia wasn't the only annoying one," Angel murmured. Just loud enough that Xander could hear the words.

"Hey! Fangface, have a little respect for those of us who weren't stupid enough to be turned into a creature of the night!"

"Oh cut it out you two. You're scaring Buffy," Willow interrupted, while nodding in the blonde's direction. Not that he thought she looked really scared, but Buffy obviously wasn't entirely comfortable with their discussion. Which Xander thought was his fault. He really shouldn't keep on mentioning that Angel was a vampire, as that upset her. Not that it mattered anymore, as-

"She's gone!" Cordelia shouted as she came running back into the room.

"What?" Xander asked, not really getting what the girl was talking about. Buffy might not be very comfortable, or completely in her right mind—whatever that meant for her—but she was still here.

"I think she left through her bedchamber window." Oh, Dawn. Right. Immediately switching tracks, he focused on the problem at hand.

"Why would she leave?"

Cordelia looked at him as if she saw water burning. "How should I know?"

Resisting the urge to antagonize her even more right now, he went over the facts. "She left through her window, somewhere during the time since we last saw her and now. We have no idea exactly when, or where. In fact, she could be anywhere by now."

"Damn!" Angel suddenly cursed behind him.

"Yeah, I know. This really sucks," Xander agreed with the vampire. Probably for the first time that he did that, he thought.

"No, not that. Spike is coming here, he must've found out about Buffy."

"Spike?" Besides him the name was spoken by three others, of which two sounded fearful, and one as clueless as him. Xander didn't like being as clueless as the Buffy version of a noblewoman.

Angel was good enough to explain it to the two of them though. Which made him once again think better of the vampire. Aside from the hairgel, the uncalled for comments, and the whole being dead thing the guy obviously wasn't a complete waste of space. "Spike is a master vampire who wants to kill Buffy because she's the Slayer."

"He wants to kill me?" the panicking blonde exclaimed.

"Not now Buffy." Xander said, pondering over the vampire's statement. "You mean to tell me that vampires work with a ranking system, master and apprentice, and all that nonsense?"

"No apprentices but yes." He waited for a moment to see if there was more of an explanation coming, but apparently the bloodsucker didn't think that was relevant right now, and Xander grudgingly had to agree with that.

"Okay, but we should be safe here, right? Or does every bloodsucker have an invitation to this house?"

"Normally we would be safe, but the transformed children don't need one, and he has brought quite a lot of them."

Looking out of the window Xander could see what the vampire was talking about, it seemed as if every kid who had been turned into a tiny monster had been added to the vampire's little army. From a tactical point of view he had to admire the vampire's strategy, undoubtedly he would send the little demons in to flush all of them out where he could then take care of them himself.

As he was the enemy however, the admiration quickly turned into practicality. "The bleach-blond is Spike?"

"Yes."

"Who's the woman?" He asked, looking at the brunette who was walking along the side of the vampire waving her arms about as if she was in some kind of ecstasy.

"That's Drusilla. A very dangerous vampire in her own right, but she's not entirely sane anymore."

"Really? How did that happen?" The way Angel flinched clued him in that the vampire probably had something to do with it, but noticing how close their enemy was getting he decided not to pursue it. "Never mind, I've got something of a plan. Willow, you need to go to your Giles so that the two of you can come up with a way out of this mess. After all, it's not like I actually signed on to kill children. Now do any of you know if this place has a backdoor?"

x.x.x

Walking through the streets in the shopping district seemed strange. Where before it had seemed as if she encountered one of the transformed children practically all the time, this place seemed eerily quiet.

So quiet in fact that, if it hadn't been for the sounds that still emanated from the rest of the town, Kirika might have almost believed it all to be a strange dream. Unfortunately, it was all too real. For the sake of the others, who she probably liked when she still had her memories, she hoped that they would solve their problem soon. Besides, while her memory loss might not be connected to the costume thing, it would make it easier for her if everyone was back to acting the way they were supposed to.

Restoring her memories was Kirika's goal at the moment. That and finding her partner, but she was pretty sure that one would lead to the other. Doing so might not be without repercussions however as she clearly remembered what had happened the last time her memories came back. The pain and remorse those memories caused had made her beg Mireille to keep her promise.

By then the two of them were already too close though, and her partner had been unable to kill her. Something that she had known at the time, but asked nonetheless. That hadn't been fair of her, but knowing what she'd done to her partner had hurt so much. And when later the full memories of her mission in Corsica had been disclosed she had been forced to kill Chloe.

Which was, aside from the murder of the Bouquet family, the only other event in her life that she truly regretted, but it had been necessary to save her partner. The girl had loved her: a love that might have only been overshadowed by the one she had for Altena, but Kirika wasn't even certain about that. The pain she had heard in the girl's voice when she asked 'why?' still tore at her heart. Especially since there had been no way to explain her reasons. Even if Chloe had been willing to listen to an explanation.

A slight burning in her eyes told Kirika that she'd better think about something else. The memories of that day were still painful, but then what did she expect? No matter how much time had past since it actually happened, she remembered it as if it had happened just a few hours ago. Because that's how long it had been for her.

Hours. Hours since she'd had to choose. Hours since she'd been willing to let herself die; only to be saved by Mireille's insistence. Hours since she'd become Noir. Or had she? She hadn't done exactly what Altena had planned, although the result was the same. Jumping in front of that bullet, and then... and then finishing the job.

No! She should focus on the here and now! She had to find that gallery and interrogate the woman called Joyce Summers, and she should get there fast. Enough time had already been wasted with that vampire, thing, creature, whatever it was. The damn thing should have died when she'd shot it, and not attack her despite its wounds. That sort of thing was simply unnatural.

So, yes she should hurry now before the gallery closed and the woman would be gone from there. Even while walking at a brisk pace, Kirika continued to pay attention to everything around her. Which was why she suddenly noticed it. The one name that she would recognize everywhere. The one name that she'd never forgotten.

Noir.

Somewhere inside that shop the ancient name was written down on something. How, why, or even exactly where, Kirika couldn't tell. She had seen the name out of the corner of her eye, and in any other circumstance she might have thought it a trick of the light. But not this time. Not here. A music store that also sold DVDs. Could this be the clue that would help her understand the diary? Was this what the entries had pointed to?

It made sense now that she thought about it. Don't keep the information where she lived, but create a fake entry in her diary that pointed in this direction. Even the map above her desk seemed perfectly normal, but it had specifically sent her along this path. So obvious now that she understood it. Of course, a public place like this would never be used as a drop point. Any information that she'd find here would be something that remained constant: like the number of Mireille's telephone.

For the second time that night she pondered the best way to gain access to a store. Shooting her way inside was probably not so good an idea this time around. Even if she had been willing to sacrifice another of her remaining bullets, she couldn't afford to do that. Without any idea of where to look inside the store it would probably take a long time to find what she was looking for. Well, she had some clues: the mentions of Jane and Sara in the diary. Perhaps they were singers, and the information she sought was stored by their CDs.

Back to the business at hand. Studying the lock, Kirika knew that she'd be able to force it open with the knives she had left. Casting a look around her, she verified that nobody was around to see what she was about to do. Turning back to the door, she pulled out one of her knives and set to forcing the lock.

When she finally heard the click that signified she could get in, Kirika started to look for the alarm. It was a fairly simple system—there probably wasn't much use in paying a lot of money for a good one in this town—which meant that it didn't take her long to disable. By the time she'd done that, her eyes had adjusted to the lack of light and started looking around. First the CDs.

Rifling through the alphabetically sorted CDs, Kirika soon came to the conclusion that there were no artists called Sara or Jane. Where should she look then? Looking over the store, she suddenly smiled when she spotted the Anime section. Silly of course. In her diary she'd called Noir an Anime series, which meant that any clues would be there.

Walking over, she once again started rifling through a great number of sorted boxes, looking for any titles that might contain Sara or Jane in any form. When she went to the next case however, her heart suddenly stopped. No. Impossible. She wouldn't have left such an obvious clue, now would she? This was what she'd seen from the outside. It was there, clearly to see for everybody who entered the store.

Seven different white boxes proudly proclaiming the word Noir.

Kirika felt her stomach plummet to the ground, while fear soared through her as she slowly started to realize the truth. No. "It can't be," she whispered in denial. Stepping away from the display, and letting the case she was holding fall to the ground, Kirika walked to another section of the store. This couldn't be. It was simply too cruel.

Okay. Calm down. It's simply a very well executed cover. Something nobody would even think of. After all, what were the chances of this actually occurring? 'Everybody's changed into their costumes, except for you, Dawn.' No! Dawn was a cover. It had to be. She was real, not some fantasy thought up by an artist. Mireille was real. Chloe was real. They were all real. She could clearly remember talking to them, fighting with them, killing people. It was all real. Kirika Yumura did really exist.

Despite what she tried to convince herself though, Kirika was slowly starting to believe that maybe she hadn't dressed as herself after all. That maybe this Dawn girl, the one with the ridiculous diary entries, had dressed like her. There had even been an entry about something like that. How she and those two friends had gone to buy their outfits, and in later entries she'd explained that her friends couldn't come.

To Kirika that had seemed like covering herself: invent something that would explain why she was dressed like herself, and then remove the reasons for why she'd done that. But now... No! Gathering her courage, Kirika walked back to the DVDs she'd spotted earlier and took one of them at random. Reading the back, she noticed that the summary of the story didn't sound the least familiar—in fact, it seemed completely focused on Chloe—and she almost let out a sigh of relief.

And then her eye fell on the summary below it.

"No." Only a whisper, but she felt the pain throughout her entire body. The pain of abandonment. The pain that told her that perhaps hadn't really been on a job here. The pain that explained some of the strange things that she'd simply ignored because they weren't important.

For a moment the pain disappeared as Kirika thought of something else. Somebody had done this to her. There was someone who had been the cause of this. Somebody had done this to her for fun. Because there was no good reason for anyone to do this. There simply wasn't. Using people for entertainment was wrong.

Using Noir for entertainment was suicidal.

She had been torn away from her one single chance at happiness and been dropped in this world where her partner didn't exist. Somebody had done that to her. On purpose. And when she found out who had done this they would find out why she was known as the thousand year darkness of Europe.

That would have to wait though. The only people who might know who was behind this were still at the house where the girl lived. The girl who was no more at fault than she was. That at least was clear from the fact that she hadn't even known about the existence of magic.

Kirika tried to swallow away the lump in her throat as she was no longer able to focus on her anger. The pain of what was done to her could no longer be contained, and she felt the hot tears trailing down her cheeks. She should leave this place. G-go back to the others. Find out who was behind this. Stop staring, turn around, and leave.

She couldn't. Instead Kirika Yumura, Noir, greatest assassin alive, fell to her knees and, covering her face in her hands, cried her heart out.

x.x.x

Xander had been happy. Until now. The plan he had devised had been incredibly simple, but it had been sufficient to get them all out of harm's way. Willow had gone out through the front door—which had been opened for her—and upon seeing the group of tiny and bigger terrors she had uttered a cry of fear, and ran away. Seeing such a tasty morsel the demons hadn't taken any time to think and had followed.

It had worked, and they had gone after the girl. Despite their initial bafflement of where Dawn could have gone, Cordelia had tactfully—for her at least—explained that there was only one logical place for a frightened little girl to go. Her mother.

As Cordelia also knew that the woman owned a gallery, and would be there this evening, she would lead them to it. After all, she had claimed, she was the only one of them with enough class to actually recognize a gallery on sight. Naturally that comment had sparked another one from Buffy. Still, despite the ongoing fight, they hadn't really encountered any problems. Until now.

They had only walked a couple of streets so far, but right now the group was staring at what Xander had to admit was one of the most strange and sickening sights he'd ever encountered. A man lying on the ground. Except he wasn't lying there voluntarily. The knives sticking from his throat, and the obvious gunshot wounds—including one through his head—were pretty obvious signs that this had been done to him.

"Now that guy is Dead, with a capital D," Xander said, feeling slightly nauseated by the savage way the man had been murdered.

"He's a vampire," Angel contradicted him.

"What?" The smell of blood hadn't been as bad as he had expected it to be, but that could be explained by other things. Although, now that he paid closer attention, he could see that there actually wasn't as much blood as there would have been with a human being. "Why isn't it moving then?"

"Whoever did this managed to wound him enough that he won't be able to get up for a while."

"You mean bullets do work?" Xander demanded incredulously. If that was the case, why hadn't Willow said so?

"They won't kill a vampire, but we aren't immune to them."

"So if I'd shot their knees out from under them, those vampires earlier wouldn't have stood a chance?"

"Yes, but-"

"How long?" Cordelia interrupted Angel with a tiny voice, obviously not faring very well under the sight. At least she wasn't emptying her stomach like the noblewoman though.

"Unless someone removes the knives? Or maybe all he needs is for his brain to be repaired. Even that could take a long time though."

Yeah sure, answer her question. Oh whatever. There was no use in continuing to argue about it; he'd better find out how effective this was. "So what you're saying is that, unless someone does something, it will be here to greet the sunrise in the morning?"

"Yes."

"And then it'll become extra crispy right? Or isn't that true either?"

"That's true alright, he'll burn to death then."

"Ewww."

Xander looked at Cordelia, who had uttered that sound of disgust. "What's wrong with that? I vote we leave it were it is."

"What?" The exclamation of surprise came from all three of his companions, including even the stereotypical blonde who had recovered a bit by now.

"Well, I doubt anyone's gonna save it, and for some reason I really don't want to mess with the plans of whoever left it here."

"How do you know this is what he wanted?"

"Do you really think that there is someone in this town who is capable of doing something like that," Xander started while pointing at the body,"but who doesn't know enough about vampires to put a stake in it? And it's not like there isn't enough wood lying around. No buddy, that's really grasping for straws."

"You might be right," Angel conceded. As if there could be any doubt about that. "In any case, we should hurry. This might be a vampire, but we don't know for sure that whoever did this wouldn't do the same to a human."

"Dawn," Xander realized, his worry about the little girl increasing. "Let's go."

He quickly started up again, leading the group until he arrived at a crossroad. Which was where he needed to bite the bullet. "Which way?"

"Oh, so suddenly you can ask again?" Cordelia huffed.

"Don't. The girl might be in danger. We don't have time for this."

"Yeah yeah, I know. Turn right. Just remember that you needed my help."

Not bothering to pay the girl any more attention, Xander continued on. Several more turns had to be made, but when Cordelia told them they were almost there—just two more blocks—he discovered that the plan hadn't worked all that great after all.

Without any hesitation, he raised his rifle and aimed it at the blond vampire who suddenly appeared from the shadows. Not that it stopped the rest from showing themselves as well, but maybe it would buy them some time. Time he could use to think of a way to get out of this situation. If they had seen the vampire, they might think he'd been the one to do that. Now that would give them an advantage.

Unfortunately, from their actions it soon became clear that they hadn't seen the vampire. Regarding him with a slightly curious look on his face, it was the blond who spoke up. "Put that away boy, I'm here for the Slayer. If you're a good boy I might even be so good as to let you live. Today."

"No Spike, you know I won't let you get her."

"If it isn't the great poof himself! What are you doin' here? Trying to save your precious little Slayer? I think you might have a teeny bit of a problem when it comes to that. You see I brought me own mates along. They might not be the largest blokes on the block, but they sure listen well."

While the blond megalomaniac was boasting, the brunette had also seemed to have gotten out of her trance and noticed Angel. "Daddy!"

Daddy? Turning to the bloodsucker on his own side he silently asked for an explanation.

"I turned her," Angel admitted with obvious reluctance.

Well, that was unexpected. "You really should learn to clean up your own mess then."

The blond had stopped boasting however, and Xander prepared himself for the attack. Tactically the best thing for the vampire would be to send the tiny demons in first. They would distract Angel and him, leaving the way free to the girls. The girls he felt he had to protect. Which put him at a quandary. Kill the transformed children, or allow the girls to die.

There was no real choice, and making his decision Xander prepared himself for the attack.

….…

What happened? Suddenly Xander found himself with his friends, and Deadboy, standing in a circle of crying children without any idea how he'd gotten there. For some reason he was pointing the fake rifle at those same children. Noticing this, he quickly put it away before anyone could comment on it.

"Spike!" Spike? Looking up he now noticed that the vampire was here as well, but as it had been Buffy who'd called the vampire's name he was sure that no harm would come to these children. Buffy would deal with the big guys, and the rest could be handled by him and Angel. And not even that proved necessary as the bloodsuckers turned around and ran away like the cowards they were.

Which was good, as he was actually still far too confused to do a good job of fighting. Where were Willow and Dawn? They were supposed to be with them, weren't they? And where had Cordy and Deadboy suddenly come from? He was about to open his mouth to ask those questions when the memories of the evening suddenly returned to him.

"Oh shit." He hadn't really said all those things, had he? Turning his horrified eyes to Cordelia, he already saw the predatory grin that implied she was going to enjoy herself, at his expense. Cordelia was the least of his worries however. The bigger problem was that he hadn't exactly been tactful where it concerned his friends. His friends: the working ghost and the noblewoman who he'd tried to get into his bed.

There was only one thing he could do about that now. So he repeated his earlier statement. "Oh shit."

x.x.x

When Buffy finally reached the gallery—which was after she'd ensured the little kids would be alright with the others—she found Dawn sitting on the steps to the entrance. Even from a distance it was obvious that her sister had been crying, an action that had ruined all the carefully applied make-up. She had stopped though, and Buffy thought it might be safe to approach the girl now. She probably wouldn't get too many hurtful comments while Dawn was still trying to come to terms with everything that had happened.

"Hey," she tried, while sitting down next to the younger girl.

"Hey." The reply didn't sound anywhere near as confident as she would have preferred, but it would have to do.

"Mom was gone when you arrived?"

A nod was the only answer to that rather useless remark.

"There was a reason I didn't tell you about all of this."

"Tomorrow."

"What?"

"Explain it tomorrow, I need to think first." Well, that made sense so she decided to cheer up her sister a little.

"Well, you always were the smart one. I've never been one to think things through."

"Yeah, I noticed that." Well that wasn't nice, but before she could comment Dawn finished her sentence. "Milady."

"That's not fair. That so wasn't me, and you can't hold it against me." At least Dawn hadn't seen how she had called that car a demon; the girl would have never let her forget something like that. Unfortunately others had seen it, and they might tell Dawn. Hmm. Well, that was a problem for another time.

The younger girl offered a small smile in response, and Buffy was relieved that things were still sort of alright between them. There was still a lot of work to be done, but for now it was at least a good start. Rising to her feet, she extended her hand to Dawn. "Let's go home, mom is probably worried."

As Dawn wordlessly allowed herself to be pulled up, Buffy looked over her costume and felt a shiver run down her back. At least her sister had been spared from being subjected to the spell. She didn't know a lot about the character Dawn had dressed up like, but from what she had been told she knew that it wouldn't have been a good thing to have a cold-blooded killer on the loose.

"I'm glad you weren't affected. Had you turned into your assassin you would have probably run around killing people or something. At least with me it was just embarrassing."

A long silence followed that remark before the shocked little girl finally answered. "Yeah, lucky me."

The tone of Dawn's voice was so strange that for a moment Buffy was shocked into silence. Had she been so strongly affected by these events? That called for a distraction. But where to start? The two of them continued their walk in silence, until in the end it was the younger sister who broke it. "I can't imagine what everyone's gonna say Monday."

"Probably nothing," Buffy replied. When Dawn then turned to her with a questioning glance, she explained a bit more. "By tomorrow most of them will have forgotten about the weird stuff that happened tonight, or they'll believe that it was only a strange dream."

"How can anyone forget about this?"

"I don't know, they just always do."

"Always? How long have you known about this sort of thing?"

"Almost two years."

She could almost see Dawn calculating and when the question came it wasn't unexpected. "The gym?"

"There was a master vampire."

"They come in masters?"

Finally thinking of a way to get her sister's mind of the events of tonight Buffy smiled. "That's what Xander asked when he was the soldier."

"Really? Well I guess it's true then what they say about great minds."

Okay, she was willing to help her get over things, but that comment was just too much. Something was needed to even the scales a bit again... Remembering what she had discovered moments before the spell hit, she knew knew exactly what to say. "Sure, oh god."

"What?"

This was embarrassing to say, but if the reaction was anything like she hoped it to be, it would be worth it. "I just thought of the most embarrassing thing I did tonight." Hook, line and sinker. Dawn looked at her with eager eyes, always willing to hear embarrassing stories about her. "I kissed Xander."

A moment of silence followed that statement, and Buffy almost felt as if the entire world held its breath for the coming explosion. "WHAT!"

She decided not to let the sister suffer too long though—not tonight at least, that could come once she was back to her normal behavior—and smiled to show the girl it wasn't as bad as she probably believed. Briefly sketching the circumstances in which it had happened, and the look on Xander's face, she decided to use her new weapon anyway. "So, you like him, don't you?" There were no limits to what could be used in this private little war called sibling rivalry.

The way Dawn blanched answered the question, but the girl was smart enough to try a denial. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don't."

"Do so."

"Don't," Dawn answered in what soon turned into a heated yes-no thing that lasted until they reached their home.

x.x.x

Once again Dawn was sitting and waiting for something to happen. After returning home she had gone directly to bed, leaving her sister to explain why the two of them had returned so late. No matter how hard she tried though, sleep simply didn't come.

Every time that she closed her eyes, images appeared in her mind. Images of days that she could remember with astonishing clarity. Days that never really happened. Images of events that never really took place, and were only imagined by some Japanese artist.

She couldn't get them out of her mind!

Even now, simply sitting by the open window of her room and looking at the moon, she was reminded of what Mireille had termed the mad tea party. A reference she—no, not she: Kirika—hadn't understood at the time. She on the other hand knew exactly what it alluded to. Huh, she huffed, alluded to. Even her vocabulary had changed because of what had been done to her. And not just in English either.

Looking at her hands, Dawn wondered why they felt so dirty. She had never spilled the blood of a human being. She had never killed anyone. Memories immediately showed up to tell her she was lying. Memories of how she turned into a killing machine shortly after meeting Mireille and the two of them were attacked on that construction yard. Memories of standing in the cold snow of a Russian winter, waiting until the children would leave the old man's side. Memories of meeting the little girl who's father she'd killed minutes before.

No! That wasn't her! And besides, they weren't real! They were fake, only characters!

Memories of how the three of them had killed what appeared to be half the Parisian police force. Memories where she faced off against some of the best the Cosa Nostra could bring to bear, while worrying how Mireille was facing against the Intoccabile.

They were characters!

Despite her own denial, Dawn couldn't stop the tears that started to slowly roll down her face. They were characters, but for every memory she had that contained somebody she killed there was also the memory of someone like the little blonde girl who had bowed to her because of her status as Noir. A little girl who hours after doing so had been gunned down by members of Soldats. Soldats who were trying to prevent Kirika from completing the ritual.

All the thinking she'd done since going to her room had helped Dawn make up her mind about one thing though. She couldn't tell Buffy the truth about what had happened. During their walk home she hadn't said anything because she needed to consider what had happened, including the fact that demons and vampires existed. Oh, and then there was that tiny barely important thing about her sister knowing that. No, she not only knew about them, she was also a hero who fought those creatures on a daily basis. Yet, she never told Dawn about it. Not once.

And as a hero hunting bad guys Buffy would never understand what it meant for her to be Noir. She would never be able to understand that being Noir was so much more than simply being good at killing people. It was even more than being the very best in that field, more than being at a level that everybody else in the business could only dream about. The true legacy of Noir meant that she was meant to protect humanity from its own evil.

Buffy would never see that, and Dawn could understand that. The distinction between being pure evil and merely a rather dark gray was difficult to make. She knew her sister well enough to realize that for Buffy there was no such thing as mostly good, or mostly evil. There was good, as represented by her, and there was evil, as represented by everyone who tried to kill her.

If Buffy found out that after the spell had ended Dawn hadn't returned to being her normal self there would be a confrontation. A witch-hunt so to speak. Not to kill Dawn, not even to hurt her if that could in any way be avoided, but to save her. And that was the most frightening aspect: that Buffy would try to save her from herself. That she would do all she could in order to make her sister like she used to be. To once again make sure she was the normal Dawn.

Buffy wouldn't rest until she'd ensured that Dawn was saved from whatever had happened tonight. Which was so totally unnecessary that it wasn't even funny. There was nothing wrong with her. For a certain definition of wrong that is. One that Buffy wouldn't agree with. So she had to do her best to hide what had happened from her sister. Something she was pretty sure would become more difficult over time.

There was something that even now she was conflicted about. Earlier that day she had been so sad that neither of her friends were able to make it. Jane being ill, and Sara having to go out of town. Now that she knew what would have happened if they'd come, she wasn't really sad about it anymore. Just imagining what would have happened if Jane had turned into Chloe was enough to make her shiver, and she silently thanked whatever God might be listening that her friend had been spared that ordeal.

Wiping the tears out of her eyes, Dawn once again turned to staring out of the window in the hope that the dawning of a new day would cheer her up. Maybe even make her forget about the things she had lost tonight.

Not even a single muscle seemed to move while she was waiting, but when the sun finally rose over the horizon she didn't see the powerful colors it radiated. Instead, all that she could see was darkness. The darkness that was now inside of her, and punctuated by the one thing she couldn't stop thinking about.

She was Noir.

And yet...

She was alone.


	4. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

How to start? Well, how about with the beginning? That was always a good place.

_1 November, 1997_

_Well, last night went rather different than I had expected. Yesterday I had already explained that Sara and Jane weren't able to come with me, but as I later found out that was only the start of my troubles._

_When I wanted to leave mom stopped me from going alone and demanded! that I'd go with Buffy and her friends. Apparently she didn't think it was safe here, and to be honest I'm not sure I like the fact that I now know she was right._

With a sigh Dawn put down the pen for a moment, and wondered if her mother actually knew what was going on in Sunnydale. Would her mother have lied to her as well? It was bad enough that Buffy had, but her mother? Well, that was just another thing she'd need to ask her sister. Once Buffy had actually woken up that is.

A look through the open window showed her that the sun had barely risen over the horizon. Knowing Buffy, that meant it would be a couple of hours before she'd actually wake up. After all, she was always late in the weekend. Okay, so apparently she had a good reason for that. But she had only found out about that reason last night. Not that sleep was bad. In fact, Dawn wouldn't mind catching a couple of hours herself, but she couldn't. Every time she closed her eyes, she once again saw-

Right. Let's continue writing then.

_Anyway, since I'm now aware of the things that stalk the night, it might be best if I wrote that information down here. Last night proved it might be necessary to do things like that, just in case I'm the next one to get possessed, or lose my memory, or something. Now then, the incredible account of what happened during the Halloween of 1997._

_It was a dark and windy night... Okay scratch that, it wasn't all that dark, it was rather warm, and there was hardly any wind. But really, should facts like that stand in the way of a good tale? I mean as far as ghost stories go this was probably one of the best. Okay, okay, don't get your panties in a twist, I'm writing._

_Oh my god, I just thought of the only thing that might be even worse then all the other things I was planning to write about. I think I might have a crush on Xander, Buffy's friend, and even worse Buffy knows about it!_

_Okay Dawn, just relax there isn't anything to worry about here. You haven't really done anything bad yet and with everything that has happened you might not even feel like that anymore._

No, she wouldn't have written down something like that yesterday. No matter how silly she had been, there were limits. Taking some correction fluid, she blotted out that last paragraph and waited for it to dry.

A waiting that soon turned into thinking about the crush. And as she didn't want to do that, she looked for a distraction. Her writing was more than adequate for that. Looking over what she had written, Dawn was rather disappointed. It wasn't anywhere near as good as the note she had written to Mireil-. No! She hadn't written that note: that had been Kirika and she wasn't real! Just because she had the memories of that girl didn't mean she was anything other than a figment of her imagination. Right?

_Okay then, like I said I went with Buffy, Xander and Willow to go steal candies from little old ladies (Xander's words! Not mine!). By the way, he thought I looked cute! sigh We had to pick up some children as well, since Buffy had gotten detention or something, I have to agree with her about the principal though, and I really hope he'll be fired before I have to go there. Now then, when we were underway, oh I forgot about the stories I told Xander and Willow! That was before we went to pick up the children, and I told some very good ones about Buffy that were meant to embarrass her, although she didn't play fair and told them some about me._

_But back to the story. We had collected the kids, and were doing the rounds, and I was hoping not to run into anyone I knew, despite the promise I had forced out of Buffy. She said that we ran into anyone I knew, I could go with them. And all I had to do for that was promise I'd be back on time, and not to tell the others about THAT incident. Wait a minute... would that promise still count after what happened? Does it matter anyway? I just said I wouldn't tell them then. I'll have to think about that. Anyway, while getting away from Buffy would have been nice I didn't want to leave Xander alone with her as she'd probably try to steal him away from me._

_But then suddenly, after some seriously weird stuff, everyone changed into their costumes! I still can't really believe it: magic is real and Buffy knew about it but didn't tell me! Later I also talked to Cordelia, another of Buffy's friends but one that I actually like. As long as she'll stay away from Xander that is, but I don't think I'll have to worry about that. And she implied that Buffy was something called a Vampire Butcher, or something like it._

_That title is probably wrong, but I'll just have to ask Buffy what it really is. The whole thing might explain why she burned down that gym though, as described in this diary a long time ago. Buffy did say it had something to do with a master vampire. I wonder what the difference is compared to a normal one?_

_This would mean that Buffy is something of a hero, and I'm not sure I like that. Especially since she probably does the whole secret identity thing. I mean, she didn't even tell me! Her own sister! It might be nice if I could use the truth at school to counter all those stories about her; that way I might receive the respect I deserve instead of being treated like the sister of a psycho. But aside from the secret identity thing, there's also the fact that nobody would believe me. Buffy said that everyone will have forgotten about what happened by Monday! Can you believe that? This town must have the highest percentage of fools in any city, and that's without counting Buffy. _

_I have made a decision though: due to the danger the actual situation in Sunnydale presents, I'll have to convince mom to let me learn some martial arts. That way I can protect myself; just in case I can't run away._

Not that the actual teaching would do her any good, but it would help her with her getting into shape.

Reading everything over again for any inconsistencies with the story the world was allowed to know, Dawn was fairly certain this was how she would have written the events of last night if nothing had happened to her. After all, it was pretty stupid to try to deny that she really hadn't changed. Just because she wasn't entirely ready yet to deal with the other personalities.

Having approved of that entry, Dawn then picked up a still empty journal, and started a new entry in that. This time using Kanji characters. Symbols she would have barely even recognized two days ago.

_The events of the previous night have shown me that it would be best if I kept some basic information in a place that I can easily access._

_This first entry will state the basic facts about my life. This is to ensure I will have access to it in case something similar to last night happens, or I lose my memories in some other ways. The reason for this is that it will prevent anyone else from discovering that something has happened to me._

_My name is Dawn Summers, but unknown to others I share my mind with the Anime character Kirika Yumura, who possessed me during Halloween '97. Kirika is, or was, a professional assassin, trained practically from birth. Much of her past is shrouded in mystery: unknown to even herself due to the removal of her memories. Her exact age was unknown to her as well, but when she first met her partner, Mireille, Kirika was between 14 and 16 years old._

_The possession took place about half a year after that initial meeting, and I have clear memories of the events that took place during those months. On my own part, I was twelve when this possession took place although, as already stated, nobody is aware that I was affected. My parents are divorced and I live with my mother, Joyce, and sister, Buffy._

She then wrote down a description of both her mother and sister, followed by some basic facts about the life she'd had up until the day before. This took quite some time, but checking the time she realized she still had time before her sister woke up. More than enough actually to allow her to continue with this important task.

_Other important facts are as follows: _

_Because of the possession I have knowledge about a large number of subjects, but since I do not yet know if they're all in accord with the real world I'll only state that I've got a quite extensive knowledge of languages, martial arts, and weaponry._

_The most important fact of all is that magic is real._

_Magic is a word used to describe the ability to alter the physical world through unnatural means. This has several consequences. First of all, it means that potential targets exist who might possess the knowledge to use this power. Beware of that. I have had only one encounter with magic so far, but that has already shown me that the possibilities are endless. It is therefore important that I find a way to protect myself against this._

_Another important consequence is the fact that vampires exist. These are supposedly mythological, undead, creatures that can only be killed by impaling them in the heart with wood, cutting of their head, or burning them until nothing is left but ashes. Bullets and knives are moderately effective in crippling areas, but can not be counted on to finish the job. As far as I know the other effective means of defending against these creatures consist of sunlight (UV radiation?), holy water, holy icons, and garlic. This information needs verification as it mostly comes from sources that cannot be fully trusted._

Well, that was one way to describe movies and she really hoped it wouldn't be necessary for her to ever have to rely on the information in here, but then, this was just in case.

x.x.x

Waking up had never been Xander's favorite pastime, but he knew that he couldn't put it off indefinitely. So, still half asleep he got up, made sure his bunk could pass inspection, and rooted around in his locker for his shaving kit. He couldn't find it though, and figuring he'd probably left it in the bathroom—a stupid move if there ever was one—Xander moved on to the bathroom to complete his usual morning routine.

Despite his sleepiness, he did immediately notice that the kit wasn't here either. Blurily looking around the small bathroom—small? When did that happen?—he couldn't find it, and he swore that he'd find some decent payback for whichever of his fellow soldiers had been so funny.

Running his hands over his face, in an attempt to discover how bad the stubbles were, Xander only encountered smooth skin. Looking into the mirror, he confirmed that weird discovery. Well, that and the fact that he looked pretty young. That was really strange, but his fuzzy mind clearly wasn't ready to deal with something like that yet. A conclusion that obviously told him he needed to clear his mind. Something that could be achieved fairly easily. As waiting any longer was unnecessary, he stepping into the shower and turned the cold water full on.

Clearing his mind did not give him the effect he'd expected, and caused him to express that in the same words he'd used the night before. "Oh shit."

The shock as he was once again faced with the memories of what had happened the night before prevented Xander from even noticing the ice-cold water as it streamed down his back. Okay, something funky was going on now. He still had the memories—well what memories the guy actually had—and some of the traits of the soldier who had possessed him during Halloween.

That probably wasn't what was supposed to happen, and- Cold! Cold! "Cold!" Jumping out from under the streaming water, he desperately tried to turn the shower off. When he finally succeeded, he stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his body in an attempt to get warm again.

Throughout the whole shivering deal—why had he used cold water? There was a reason heaters were invented—he tried to figure out what he should do. Okay, the short list was, well pretty short actually. First he needed to think about what had happened.

In the end everything had happened so fast and, with Buffy tearing of to find Dawnie, he didn't even find out what exactly had happened. Well, he knew his own actions, and while it didn't hurt anymore he could definitely remember Cordy's answer to his behavior. But that still didn't tell him much. What he wanted—needed—to know was who was behind it, and how much had he suffered when he was finally stopped.

Which meant that the second point on his list was talking to Giles. G-man would know what had happened, and maybe even how they could stop it from happening again. As well as explain why he was still suffering from a bad case of soldier-personality. Yes, that was a good plan, Xander thought while walking out of the bathroom.

Which meant he now knew exactly what he had to do. When he started pulling on his clothes however, he admitted to himself that there was something else that needed to be done as well. After all, he hadn't exactly been very kind to either Buffy or Willow, and he probably should find a way to make up with them.

Undoubtedly this would include some serious groveling, but if that was what it took for either of his girls to actually look at him again, so be it. He could be lucky though, at least with Buffy as she might be so distracted with the whole 'Dawn now knows about the Sunnydale nightlife' thing that there was a chance that she'd forgotten about it. A low groan came out of his throat as Xander realized just how unlikely that was, and even in the unlikely case that would happen he didn't doubt that Cordelia would make a comment to remind his friend.

Sighing, he finished dressing and walked downstairs. He debated having breakfast, but with both of his best friends still angry at him he wasn't all that hungry. Well, he was. He just didn't feel like eating. And maybe if he didn't wait too long before going to Willow he'd be able to eat with them. If she forgave him that is.

Which she was sure to do. If he managed to come up with a way to get back in her good graces.

His actions last night might not yet be at a Barbie-stealing level, but Willow had been pretty mad so it had better be something good. Getting his coat, he slipped out of the door into the far too early morning. Apparently the soldier wasn't only a neat freak, he got up early as well. Wasn't his life the best?

x.x.x

Buffy woke up with a scream trying to escape from her throat, but managed to keep it inside. There was no point in waking up the entire house just because she had a bad dream. Although she was slightly surprised that she hadn't heard Dawn. Maybe her sister would be able to deal with reality.

But she could talk with Dawn later to find out for herself, right now there was her own lack of decent sleep. She hadn't had this bad a night since she'd been newly called, and she had a good idea about the cause as well. Not that difficult when you considered that she'd been pestered by dreams of vampires and demons kidnapping her little sister the entire night. Dreams that she feared might someday become reality now that Dawn was aware of what was out there. For a moment she briefly indulged herself in wishing that Dawn didn't know anymore about the real world than she had this time yesterday.

Wishing was useless though—and probably dangerous to do on the Hellmouth—and she had something else to think about. Not all of her dreams had concerned Dawn: one dream had been different. She was pretty sure actually that it was a Slayer dream, which meant that she needed to tell Giles about it. Especially as this dream was about as disturbing as the ones about Dawn.

With disturbing clarity she could still see the shocking images of how her her soul-mate was killed by... something. The details of the event itself had been a little unclear, but she would ask Giles to look into the green glowy thing that had killed him in her dream. She would not allow anyone to kill those she loved, be they her sister or boyfriend.

Having written down the dream, Buffy dressed and walked downstairs; where she became aware of a strange and unexpected smell. What? Was Giles here? Continuing to the living room she wondered what her Watcher would be doing here. Had he come to tell her what had happened last night?

Upon entering the room however she stopped dead in her tracks. No, it couldn't be. That was just impossible. Her own sister had betrayed her.

"Dawn," she almost begged only to see her sister's surprised face look back at her.

"What's wrong Buffy?"

Why was the girl suddenly whispering? "Why are you drinking tea?"

It was obvious the girl didn't understand why it upset her so. "Because I felt like it? What's wrong with drinking tea?"

"Only British people in tweed drink tea, like Giles. I can't believe you're doing this to me. What if he finds out about it? He might decide it is important for me to drink it as well." Why couldn't Dawn understand how terrible this could turn out to be?

"I'm sure that he won't be able to force you to do anything, and besides you wouldn't listen if it was mom who told you to do something like that so why would you listen to this Giles? For that matter, who is Giles?"

Oh yeah. Now that her sister knew part of what was going on she shouldn't assume the girl knew everything, although she feared that might not last long. Sometimes the annoying brat was far too clever, and usually used that against her. Which was even more unfair as Buffy never did anything to antagonize Dawn.

"That's part of the explanation you wanted to wait with until today. Would that be now or later, I mean I can wait until tomorrow or next week as well if that would be better." Or even next year. Never would be a rather good option as well.

"No need to wait. Once I've finished reading the paper we can talk."

Read the paper? Okay, now she was starting to believe something was wrong with her sister. "Are you sure that you weren't affected last night?"

"Why?"

"Let's see, you drink tea, which I've never seen you do before. You read the paper, which I don't even do most of the time, and you are whispering instead of talking normally."

Dawn blinked at that, before offering an explanation that was so obvious that Buffy could almost hit herself for not realizing it herself. "I think I got something of a cold last night, my throat hurts which is why I don't talk loudly and drink the tea. I don't want mom to know. She'd probably stop me from going out. Please don't tell her?" The pleading innocent looking eyes convinced Buffy. If her sister had indeed been possessed by a cold-blooded killer she could never look that innocent, could she? She wasn't entirely certain about any lingering effects of the spell—as she didn't really notice any—but from experience she knew magic always had nasty side-effects.

"Okay, I won't tell mom. Sorry about that, but what about the paper?"

The look on Dawn's face was one she knew far too well, and Buffy wished she hadn't asked that. Every time her sister adopted a superior look like that it was to show her that she was being silly. Not something she liked. "Now that I know what's going on in this town, I thought it would make sense to have a look at the papers, and find out what they have to say about everything that happens."

"Oh, well Willow or Giles usually do that. I just focus on the beating up part." When Dawn gave her a reproachful look a that comment, Buffy simply shrugged and went into the kitchen to get some breakfast. Being reprimanded about those things by Giles was bad enough, but having her brat of a sister do it? That had to be avoided at all cost.

Preparing a sandwich, Buffy realized that she hadn't seen her mother yet, and decided to ask about it. "Has mom left already?"

No answer came, and she realized that Dawn was probably bothered by her throat. Still, she could at least give some sort of reply. "Dawn? Has mom left?"

When she didn't receive any kind of answer at this second attempt either, Buffy grumbled a bit and walked back into the living room. "Hey, I asked you a question."

Her sister wasn't paying any attention however as she was staring at the paper, and Buffy believed she could actually see tears appearing in the girl's eyes. "Dawn? What's wrong?"

Dawn finally lifted her head, and her haunted eyes looked at Buffy. "People died last night."

Yeah. The realities of Sunnydale's nightlife. "I know. I do my best, and I save most people, but sometimes a vampire manages to avoid me. I hate it when that happens."

"A little boy died," Dawn answered, seemingly ignoring what Buffy had just said.

"What? No, I thought they had all survived. Can I see?" Taking the newspaper from Dawn's hand, she started reading the article.

_**Gangwar during Halloween.**_

_Last night what appeared to be a gangwar shook up the normally peaceful Halloween in Sunnydale. While children were out to gather their yearly treats, a group of yet-unidentified people shook up the proceedings by starting fights. Reports of gunfire came from all over town keeping the police occupied for hours, and unfortunately preventing them from reacting to some reports in time._

_During one of these incidents, eight year old Mike Johnson became the victim of a cruel attack as he was slashed by a knife before being shot in the throat. While details concerning this event are still uncertain, it has been confirmed that the young child wasn't found until hours after his parents had started searching for him, by which time the wounds had proved fatal._

_Many of the partying children had come under attack, and received multiple injuries. As of this writing, two children are currently in the hospital for serious injuries, while many others received less severe wounds. The police refused to comment on the fact that several children have also been reported missing._

_Aside from the children, a number of senior citizens suffered heart failures due to the fright caused by the attacks. When asked for comments, mayor Wilkins stated that he would personally ensure that nothing like this will ever happen again during Halloween._

"Oh no. Only eight years old and I failed him." Hanging her head, Buffy pressed her eyes shut in a futile attempt to stop the tears from coming. But it wasn't just the little boy who had died either, that was only the one who had been found already. She had truly believed that the children who were with Spike had been all. Now she knew better.

When she felt her sister's small arms encircling her, Buffy gave up on repressing the tears and shared her grief with her sister: burying her face in Dawn's shoulder while crying her heart out. "I failed them, I'm supposed to protect these people, and I failed them. I let a little boy die that I should have protected."

x.x.x

Sitting in the park had always been a good way for Xander to get some undisturbed time to think things over. The number of good memories he had of this place was greater than anywhere else in Sunnydale. In fact, he only had to look at a particular spot to have his mouth curve into a smile as he remembered what had happened there.

It was right there where a ten year old Willow had first shown Jesse and him how she had used her mother's make-up. Neither of them had understood what was so special about putting stuff on your face—mud always appeared there by itself—but there was one thing they knew about the stuff. It didn't react well to water, and they just happened to have their waterguns with them. The fallout hadn't been as bad as with the Barbie thing, but she had remained angry at both of them for quite some time. That hadn't really mattered to them however as the memory of Willow's face when the make-up started running was one he and Jesse cherished for years after. And managed to bring up every once in a while as well. Just to see how Willow would react to it.

Turning away from those pleasant memories he noticed a pirate walking through the park. Well, limping was more like it. Whoever that was probably didn't feel very good. It was only when the figure was closer that he recognized who it was.

"Larry? What are you doing here? Don't you know that Halloween was yesterday?"

"Shut up Harris." But despite his words the boy moved to where Xander was sitting.

"What happened to you?" He asked when Larry eventually sat down—who only did so once he was sure that nobody would see him hanging around Xander.

"Someone put something in my drink last night. The last thing I remember before waking up was talking to Cordelia and some little girl."

"Talking?" Somehow he had a feeling that he hadn't been the only one on the receiving end of the brunette's wrath last night. And if Larry was any indication he might have actually gotten out of it relatively well.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault. Like I said, someone must've put something in my drink."

"You were trying something? And let me guess, she nailed you between the legs?"

"Yeah, and not exactly gently either. How'd you guess?"

Fess up time, Xander. "Let's just say that you weren't the only one who's, ah, drink was drugged."

"She got you too?"

He only nodded. There wasn't anything else he needed to say, although... "But that doesn't explain why you've only now returned or the headache."

"I really was messed up, I also bothered the little girl, and whoever she was had one hell of a kick."

"And this little girl was with Cordy? Can you tell me what she looked like?"

"She was Japanese and dressed in some kind of weird gold costume. Ah shit, it still hurts." And the burly boy once again grabbed his head in pain; too busy being miserable to pay any more attention to Xander.

Dawn? The only girl he had seen Cordelia with during Halloween had been her but that just didn't make sense. Dawn wasn't capable of doing things like that, was she? Maybe she was stronger because she was Buffy's sister? No, that was a ridiculous theory, but what else could it be?

That didn't really matter right now however. He could wonder about Dawn's strange behavior later. For now he had some other questions that needed to be answered. More or less ignoring the groaning boy next to him, Xander started thinking about whatever had happened last night, and how it would affect him. By now he could remember everything that had happened during the spell and, more disturbingly, he knew how he felt about some of his actions. Part of him was shocked at the way he had treated his friends, but another part thought they had deserved it. No, not exactly deserved it but they shouldn't have left those openings.

He also realized that was just an excuse, and a poor one at that. However, while he still needed to apologize to Willow for what he said, it wasn't the most important thing on his mind. Suddenly he remembered he had also continuously insulted both Deadboy and Cordelia. Shaking his head he decided that wasn't important either, Angel's sole reason of existence was to be insulted, and Cordelia had given as good as she got, and not only verbally.

Looking at Larry he realized that if there was one person who didn't take any bullshit it was Cordelia. And now, for the first time in probably his entire life he felt something that came pretty close to compassion for the groaning boy next to him. There was nothing he could have done about his behavior and yet he had been punished even harder by Queen C than he himself had been.

But that still left the two most important things. His actions towards Buffy had been inexcusable since he had made a conscious decision to go for it. The decision he had made at the end of the night—where he had been prepared to kill as many of the little children as necessary—was even worse though.

He would deal with that later though. After he'd made up with his friends. In the case of Buffy it would most likely require a lot of groveling—he rather doubted his earlier hopes would come true. He had really been an ass last night, hadn't he?

Once he he'd made up with his friends he could try to figure out why he still knew how to fieldstrip an M-16, and was suddenly a neat freak. For that he would probably need Giles; luckily that at least was someone he hadn't insulted yesterday.

x.x.x

I can kill people. I kill, and it saddens me.

The words kept going through Dawn's head long after Buffy had stopped crying about her own failure to protect a little boy. A little boy who Dawn had killed. Once again she could see how the tiny monster had lunged for her, and how she'd eventually been forced—or at least no longer bothered with trying anything else—to pull the trigger.

She didn't like the fact that she had killed an innocent, but did wish that she'd had the chance to finish the job. That would have prevented him from suffering for so long. Suffering because of the same spell that had affected her. A monster was dangerous, even small ones, but came up short when compared to the skill and determination represented by Noir.

And now she truly was a murderer, having killed with her own hands, and the victim had been a little boy who had merely been at the wrong place in the wrong time. A little like Mireille's brother, who had died just because he was related to the beautiful blonde. No! He hadn't been real: only a character about whom she had some memories.

But wasn't reality defined by the memories one had?

When she had been without any memories she had gone to school until she found Mireille, and even then all her actions were defined by her lack of memories. Once those had partially returned she had become her other self, her darker self. The True Noir as Chloe would see it; the assassin who didn't care about anything but her partner and the mission. The one person who was probably more messed up than even Chloe or Altena.

That person too was now a part of her, although luckily still separate. Which meant that Dawn was torn three ways over the death of the little boy. Part of her couldn't feel anything but guilt about her actions, that was the real her. The only part to have existed for more than a day. But the rest of her mind... Where the gentler personality at least slightly regretted the fact that the boy had needed to die the other didn't feel anything at all except contempt for such an easy target.

"Okay, what do you want to know?" Shocked out of her thoughts by Buffy's words, Dawn regarded her sister for a moment. For a moment wondering if she should share her feeling of guilt with the older girl. But no, she would never understand how last night's events had affected her, and would probably try to exorcise her, or something like that. It wasn't like she really knew what was possible in this screwed up world she now found herself in.

"What happened last night?"

"You probably know as much about that as I do, since I had to go look for you last night I didn't really get a chance to talk with Giles. But I'll go there later, you wanna come?"

"Yes." This Giles might know who was behind the events of last night, and that was something she wanted to know as well. Kirika's promise from the previous night still lingered in her mind.

"Good, I can answer other questions you have." Buffy sounded so nervous that Dawn wondered just how bad it all was, and how exactly Buffy was dealing with the fact that her little sister now knew about demons.

"Cordelia called you something like the Vampire Butcher, what does that mean?"

"Butcher!" Oh, so that wasn't the correct title. "Did that bitch really call me that?"

"I could be wrong don't be angry at her. She just said something like that to Willow, and she also mentioned that you were the one who deals with things like what happened last night."

"You like her don't you?" Buffy asked, sounding a little surprised.

"She was nice to me, although she shouldn't have done that to Xander."

"Done what?"

"She kneed him in the, you know."

"No way." Buffy's eyes bugged out in surprise at hearing that. "Why?"

Strange, she had thought the answer had been rather obvious. "You know how he was last night don't you?"

The blonde's face turned red, although Dawn couldn't really tell if it was because of anger, or shame. "I remember, but that was still a little overkill, or don't you think so?"

Oh, oh. If the glint in Buffy's eyes was anything to go by, it might be a good thing to change the subject. Quickly. "Well, it was a little harsh, but if you're not called the Butcher then what are you?"

"Okay, I'll let it go for now, but we will talk about it. Alone or in public," Buffy promised. Yikes! She wouldn't do that to her favorite sister would she? "But to answer your question, I'm the Slayer. I'll have Giles give you the whole speech thing later, and just tell you what it means for me."

x.x.x

"Xander." Oh boy, the reception was indeed as cool as he had feared. Not that it mattered, if he didn't try to fix the damage now it would only get worse.

"Hey Wills. Can we talk?"

"And why would you want to talk to a working girl? Or was it a working ghost?"

Ouch, this was going to be harder then he had hoped it would be. "Look Willow, I'm really sorry about that but I wasn't entirely myself you know."

"Willow, who is it?"

"It's Xander, mom!" Willow shouted back into the house.

"Ask him to come in then, I'm sure he's hungry."

"You aren't forgiven yet, buster, and you will pay for those comments but you heard mom. Do you want to come in?"

"Thank you." Xander told her, while hugging her. If nothing else, he might at least alleviate the empty feeling in his stomach. "You really are a better friend then I deserve."

"You've got that right."

x.x.x

"Giles?" Buffy called out in the seemingly empty library.

"I am here Buffy," Giles answered while walking out from between the bookcases, still paging through a book. "I was just researching if we should expect any aftereffects from the spell."

"Okay," Buffy said, pretending to care. It was over with, wasn't it? She didn't really feel as if it affected her, and the only one she still worried about a little was Dawn but all it took to find out the truth about that was some quality time with her sister's diary. "But hey, meet my sister. Dawn this is Giles, Giles, Dawn."

Giles finally lifted his head from the book in surprise, and stammered a little when he noticed Dawn. "D-do you think it's wise to bring her here?"

"She was with us last night when the spell happened, but luckily wasn't affected herself."

"Hello Giles, nice to meet you," her little sister then interrupted while extending her hand in a greeting.

"Yes, quite. Nice to meet you too, Dawn. I'm Rupert Giles," her Watcher answered the greeting while—after placing the book on the table—shaking Dawn's hand. Having overcome his surprise at Dawn's presence, he then reverted back to business. "You should have reported to me last night, Buffy."

"I couldn't! First I had to look for Dawn, and then mom wouldn't let me leave the house because she was angry that I let Dawn stay out so late. Besides, I called didn't I?" He really shouldn't be angry at her, Buffy thought. She might not have had any intention of doing the reporting thing last night, but she was here now, wasn't she?

"Calling wasn't exactly sufficient. Especially since you only left a message on the bloody answering machine."

"Hey relax, everything worked out fine, didn't it?"

"This time perhaps Buffy, but I really think it would be better if you observed the proper forms when it comes to these things."

Deciding she didn't need the lecture she switched subjects. "Yeah, yeah. I'm here now so you can go and tell me all about the evil wizard who had decided to turn me into a brainless idiot."

"As if that needed much."

Without Slayer hearing she might have missed the remark but as she didn't she threw a nasty look at her sister who was now looking at the musty books displayed in the cases.

"And thank you for that great show of sisterly love."

"You're welcome." That wasn't fair! Dawn was supposed to feel guilty after a sarcastic remark like that.

"Anyway," Buffy started, while turning to Giles—if Dawn was acting like a brat, she'd be ignored like one. "What was the deal yesterday?"

"Ah, yes." Polishing his glasses—why did he always have to do that?—Giles answered. "A man named Ethan Rayne was behind it."

"Ethan? As in the costume shop?" Dawn piped up from where she was looking at books written in languages she couldn't possibly understand.

"Quite, it seems as if he had enspelled all the costumes he sold, and then later triggered them by calling on Janus."

"So how did you stop it then?" Buffy wanted to know.

"In the end it came down to destroying the statue he had used to trigger the spell."

"And Ethan Rayne?" Wow, Buffy turned to her sister in surprise. She hadn't ever expected to hear such hatred in the girl's voice.

"Unfortunately he fled before I was able to apprehend him, and turn him over to the Council."

"He's still out there?"

"As I said, unfortunately yes. Although it is likely that by now he has fled Sunnydale."

"Okay, well if he shows up again I'll kick his ass for messing with me and my friends."

"Yes, I do not doubt you would try to do so." The Brit told her.

"Hey, like the little green guy said to whatshisname, do or do not, there is no try. And I will do."

"Yes, yes. But you should be aware that Ethan is quite dangerous."

Huh, it almost sounded if he knew the guy. "Do you know him or something?"

But he had already turned to Dawn to ask her why, unlike practically everyone else, she hadn't bought her stuff at Ethan's.

"Sara's mom took us to this big shop about an hour's drive from here."

"Thank god." Buffy muttered.

"What do you mean Buffy?" Giles wondered.

"She and those two friends of her decided to dress up like assassins from some Anime show. I don't think having the three of them running around killing people would have helped the situation yesterday."

"Oh." Well, that had shocked Giles enough to make him start polishing his glasses. Again. "No, I don't believe that would have helped. I take it your friends weren't affected either."

"They couldn't come, and had to cancel. Which is why I was forced to go with milady there."

"Dawn!" Why did the girl keep going on about that? Was it so much to ask for her to stop being so annoying? "Oh Giles, could you perhaps explain everything to her? You know, give your speech and stuff?"

"Buffy, I didn't like having your friends help you, but I allowed that. However, if you believe that I would allow a little girl to fight as well you are sorely mistaken."

"No! Dawn won't fight, she doesn't even know how to do that. But she wants to know about what's going on and all. And you are way better then me at explaining that stuff." Maybe a little flattery would help convince him. After all, if Giles didn't explain things she would have to do it.

"Quite, well as long as you won't try to do any of the fighting, I don't see any harm in explaining things to you." Giles told Dawn. Excellent work, Buffy congratulated herself, he always was a sucker for explaining things. "Now, unlike most people believe, the world didn't start as a paradise."

x.x.x

"Oh good, you're here already," Xander greeted Buffy when he and Willow entered the library.

After having been able to eat at Willow's house the two of them had a long talk, which for the greatest part consisted of groveling on his part and a steady, but slowly decreasing, stream of accusations on hers. Eventually though he had managed to convince her that she really shouldn't blame him for the mistakes that he'd made during the night before. And yes, he knew he had behaved very badly and yes, he was very sorry he had done so.

After all that groveling they had each told the other what had happened the night before and she had at least been sort of sorry for him about Cordelia's action. Although he suspected that was more because of how she felt about the brunette than anything to do with him. He, on the other hand, had found out how she and Giles had finally managed to save the day and canceled the spell.

In the end they had decided to go to Buffy, but when she hadn't been home they had turned to the place where she was most likely to be. And Xander still needed to talk to the Watcher as well, so he didn't mind it at all.

"Hi Xander, Willow." Dawn greeted them, turning momentarily from Giles with whom she was having a conversation.

"Hi Wills, Xander." Oh yes, he had been right. Buffy still remembered his actions and if her cool tone was any indication he wasn't done groveling yet.

"Buffy! Can I talk to you for a moment? Alone?" Good going Willow, butter her up a bit.

"Sure, he can go bothering the others."

"Hey, it wasn't me!" At the glare Buffy bestowed him he understood that she was going to be more difficult to convince of his innocence. "It wasn't me."

Seeing the two girls walk away for their private conversation Xander walked over to the ongoing discussion between the Dawnmeister and G-man.

"No, you can't just say things like that happen on the Hellmouth."

"It is the only explanation that makes any sense. Why else wouldn't anyone remember these things when they happen?"

"Maybe it's a cover-up. Some magic-user who doesn't want people to know the truth, and stops them from remembering it. And not only magic, I mean I've lived here for over a year, but until yesterday I didn't know anything about it. Some of those things Buffy described should have been noticed by reporters."

"Yeah, G-man. Maybe she's right and we're dealing with a conspiracy. You know, I've never trusted that mayor guy." It wasn't really nice to take advantage of Dawn's lack of knowledge about these facts, but he couldn't resist teasing her. "He could be some kind of powerful sorcerer, and control the media so that he could implement his diabolical plan to stop people from littering."

"Xander!" Dawnie whined. "Don't be like that, I'm serious here. Blaming everything on the Hellmouth is just an excuse to stop looking for a real reason."

"Sorry Dawn, but in this case I've got to agree with G-man. I mean, unless you think there has been a conspiracy for as long as Sunnydale has existed it wouldn't explain why people didn't remember things when it had just been founded."

"Why Xander, that was actually profound. Are you alright?"

"Hah hah G-man." He then realized that it had indeed not been something he would have said yesterday. "Although, I think I'm still a bit affected by the spell."

"Really? I was doing some research before Buffy and Dawn showed up. Let me take a look at what I've found."

While Giles went of to find his books Xander turned to the little girl that was still glowering at him. "Look Dawn, I was serious about how Giles is probably right about it all being caused by the Hellmouth."

"Maybe, but you didn't have to make fun of me. I might be right you know."

He had to sigh, the girl could be really cute when she wanted to, but was just as stubborn as her sister. "Okay, I'm sorry about making fun of you. But you understand what I'm saying don't you?"

"Yes, but I don't agree."

"When did you start being so paranoid?"

Any reply she might make however was interrupted as Giles reappeared with a book. "This book details some of the possible effects being possessed can have. While nothing quite like this has been mentioned I can combine some of the ideas these people had and gain an understanding of what might have happened last night."

"Whatever you say." He noticed that finally the two girls had returned as well and were now coming towards them, although Willow was casting some strange looks at Dawn.

"Quite, now why do you believe you are still under the influence of the spell?"

"What? But you're acting like you now aren't you?"

"Yes Buffy, I'm me again. Not the sleazebag from last night."

"But then why do you think that you're still under the influence." With an imperious look the blonde turned to Giles for an answer. "Giles, explain."

"I was just attempting to find that out Buffy when you interfered. Now sit down and be quiet."

Wow, G-man wasn't in a very good mood was he? Most likely he was fed up with American teenagers asking bloody questions, or something even more British. "Okay, Giles. Like I've already told Willow, when I woke up ridiculously early this morning I made my bed."

Looking at the Brit and waiting for an answer he noticed the man first blinking and then frowning in consternation. "And?"

"What do you mean, and?"

"And what else? That isn't anything special is it?"

Thinking that should have been obvious Xander answered. "I never make my bed, but today I did it in such a way that it would have passed inspection in any army."

The tweed-man muttered a comment that sounded suspiciously like "bloody uncivilized American teenagers" but Xander decided to ignore that. "Is there anything else, aside from being able to perform the simplest of tasks?"

Not very nice. Oh well. "Yeah, as I said, I woke up at about a quarter to very early. Oh, and I remember how to use all kinds of weapons and stuff. Tactics as well."

"Interesting," Giles mused, while paging through the book.

"So, how come I'm still soldierboy?"

"Like you have already said, you are yourself. However I believe the magical energies that influenced you did something to your brain causing those memories to remain even after the spell had stopped working."

"Wait a minute, it messed with my brain?"

"Of course it did, how else could you be someone else, and have your own memories blocked? Now however, both sets of memories are present, and you might need to learn how to deal with them. From what I understand the effects should be temporary, the length depending on how specific the spirit that possessed you was, and how much alike the two of you were."

"Really? So what would have happened if someone had been possessed by a very specific character, like a character with a name and background?" Dawn asked, seeming rather interested in the answer.

"True possession like that is rare, and mostly done by ghosts or spirits, and very different from what happened last night. But to answer your question, it is likely that person would keep both sets of memories, both souls so to speak."

"But that would be temporary as well?"

"I can't be certain as I've never read about anything like that happening, but I would think both souls would eventually merge in order to stop the person from going insane."

"Oh, so that would be permanent?"

"Well, aren't you lucky then Dawn." Buffy said, smiling at her sister.

"Yeah, lucky me."

The words had sounded a little off to Xander, but he didn't have time to think about it as Buffy suddenly spoke up.

"Oh Giles, I almost forgot but I had a Slayer dream thingie last night."

"And why didn't you tell me about that before?" The man really looked like he was at the end of his wits and Xander almost started feeling sorry for him. But he didn't have time for even male solidarity until he wasn't in trouble himself anymore.

"I forgot for a moment, you know with everything going on. But I think it's a really important one."

"Very well, you did write it down didn't you?"

"Yes I did," a proud sounding Buffy said, before deflating. "But I kinda forgot the book at home."

Xander was certain that if Giles hadn't been holding the book he would have started polishing his glasses. For a moment he idly wondered how many pairs the man used up that way. "Yes, how could I have imagined otherwise. Can you tell me what you saw?"

"I saw Angel get killed by some kind of green glowy thingie."

Angel? Killed? Xander sat up a little straighter, not entirely sure how to deal with this news. He didn't like the guy but he was on their side. Giles just accepted the facts without any sign of emotion, and asked Buffy to describe the killer as good as she could.

"A green glowy thingie, it was smaller then Angel."

"Any other details?"

"No. Do you know what it could be?"

"Out of my head I wouldn't really know all that many green glowy thingies." The distaste at the vague description was obvious to Xander, although Buffy herself seemed oblivious to it. "But it might be a representation for some kind of spell, although I wouldn't know where to start looking there either."

"We'll help," Buffy immediately offered, which was to be expected since it concerned Deadboy. She then looked at the clock however and changed her statement. "Monday, mom would kill me if I was late for dinner today. Or would you guys mind looking now? I might even come back tonight or tomorrow, if mom lets me."

Xander really didn't want to do this but he figured it might help in his attempts to stop her from being angry at him so, reluctantly, he accepted the duty. Willow had to be home early as well, but said she'd help him until she had to leave.

"Thanks, that's great guys." Buffy beamed at both of them before turning to her sister, obviously intending to tell her to come along. Dawnie however seemed to be thinking about something while staring out of the window, apparently oblivious to the things going on inside. "Dawn? What are you thinking about?"

The girl was quiet for a moment before answering in that soft voice she had been using ever since he had gotten here. "I was just thinking how sorry I am for you."

"Huh? Sorry for me, why that?" Buffy suspiciously asked.

"If what mister Giles said about how the more alike the spirits are, the longer you retain the memories is true, you'll probably keep them for the rest of your life."

Ouch! Xander had to bite on his lip in order to stop himself from laughing, but he was in enough trouble with the Slayer as it was and didn't want to add to it.

"Dawn!" The furious blonde shouted before she got a sly look on her face. "At least I'm not the one who has a crush on Xander."

What? What was that? Did little Dawnie? Xander wasn't sure how to react to that but he then noticed the girl's cheeks flame before she exploded in anger.

"BUFFY!"

x.x.x

Once again Dawn was sitting in her room to think things over. The day had proved quite fruitful as it had supplied her with answers to some of her questions: giving her a better idea of what the future might bring. What Giles had said about the souls or personalities merging was strange, but somehow both frightening and a relief. There was no doubt in her mind that this merging wouldn't go as smoothly as she'd like. Before anything else though, she needed to allay Buffy's suspicions about her being possessed. Apparently her sister wasn't quite as ignorant as she'd always believed.

Checking what she now thought of as her public diary she noticed that the little hair she had placed on it had disappeared indicating that, as expected, Buffy had used the opportunity of her absence to read it. A tiny smile appeared on her face as she realized this at least had worked. Now all that she needed to do was continue writing in it, and within several days Buffy would believe there was nothing different about her.

Although even that probably wouldn't entirely work. The older girl's reaction to her behavior this morning had proved that she was more aware of things then Dawn had always assumed. Her hearing too had proved to be scary in its intensity, and it was likely the rest of her senses were just as developed making it a lot harder to get anything past the Slayer. She really should find a way to test exactly how good those senses were.

At least her mother hadn't suspected there was anything wrong, but then she didn't know anything about magic and probably attributed everything to her crush on Xander. Xander, it was strange how so much had changed over the course of the last day, but that little detail had remained the same. No, not entirely the same. There were some differences in the way she could deal with it. Most importantly the fact that she realized he was just as flawed as every other human being. That nonsense about the Hellmouth causing everyone to ignore or forget about the supernatural was obviously one of his flaws.

Shaking her head, Dawn wondered how any intelligent person could accept any excuse that was so flimsy. A conspiracy that lasted since Sunnydale had been founded wasn't that strange; the town wasn't much older then a century. Soldats had survived without being noticed for a thousand years—even if they were fiction—so surely some other group could do the same for a century. Especially if they had magical assistance. That thought made her frown, in less then a day she had gone from not knowing about magic to hating it with a passion. It seemed as if everything that was wrong could be blamed on magic, and that was a dangerous assumption.

Paying a bit more attention to her writing, Dawn noticed that she'd already come quite far. Huh, and that while she was thinking about other things. Still, a quick check showed her that a couple of words had snuck in that shouldn't have been there, and she carefully scratched them out. It wasn't the first time something like that happened, so Buffy wouldn't really be concerned about it.

Now then, where was she? Ah! The martial arts thing. She had talked it over with Buffy on their way home, and while her sister didn't like it she had understood that it might be useful. While talking it over with Buffy, Dawn had briefly considered if Buffy's Watcher—Giles—might be able to train her. That training would undoubtedly have been better, but he had seemed far too smart to fall for any excuse she was likely to come up with concerning her sudden skills.

And the training wasn't worth her cover. At least not yet. Which meant that after dinner it had been time to tackle the second problem concerning her training. The person who was supposed to be paying for it: her mother. Strangely enough though, her mother had actually been very easy to convince as her mother was happy that she was finally going to do something about sports again. Even if it was a fighting thing.

Which meant that her mother was actually closer to the truth than Buffy who thought that she was going to learn how to fight. Because she didn't need to learn how to fight. No, that was something she was already more than capable of. The reason for the classes was to regain her old strength and reflexes. No! Gain! Not regain!

Having arranged that, it had been time for her to check up on Jane, who was still sick. The little detour she made on her way there wasn't something anyone needed to know about. Besides, the store had been empty when she arrived, and Ethan Rayne was probably in another country by now.

After that small diversion, she had continued on to her friend, and they had spent the time talking about things that a day ago had still seemed interesting to her. It had been a strange conversation, and Jane had asked her several times if she was alright. Dawn really hoped that she'd managed to make the girl believe that it was only worries. She didn't have that many friends to begin with, and would really hate it if the whole possession thing would destroy that last bit of social life as well.

Now it was time for more important things however. She couldn't do anything about her friendships right now, and replacing one diary with the other she started writing in it. A number of the assumptions she had made that morning needed to be corrected, and other things needed to be added.

Luckily she had managed to convince Giles that she should be allowed to read the books in his library. That way she would no doubt find out more, but there was the problem that she couldn't read a fair number of those books. Aside from Latin and Ancient Greek, she only knew modern languages, and those books were not written in anything modern. Some of them not even in a human language. Oh well, she'd just have to convince Giles to teach her those languages, they shouldn't be too hard to learn.

Turning a number of pages she started a new chapter. Making a list of the items she really needed. From easily obtainable things like a stake—she should be able to convince Buffy to give her one—and a religious icon—probably a cross—to more difficult things. She needed to have real weapons, the couple of hunting blades she had left were in no way enough for a real fight.

Besides, they were barely functional as melee weapons. Throwing them was completely out of the question. But how would she be able to get guns and quality blades? Aside from the fact that most people wouldn't sell that sort of stuff to a twelve year old girl. Well, maybe the blades, but even that couldn't be done in Sunnydale where word might get back to her mother, which was always a possibility. And all of that was aside from the issue of how to pay for the weapons. Considering the only real way she knew how to make money was exactly why she needed those weapons Dawn could think of only one way to get the money. And there was a small, but existing, risk to that.

Not being able to come up with a good solution, she decided to put that question off until later. There was one other thing that needed to be written down before she went to bed. A very important thing actually: one that all of her personalities agreed had to happen. Turning to the last page in the book Dawn entered three words, words that would change her life forever.

_Target: Ethan Rayne_


End file.
